Final Shots
Sanchi's great stupa is its most important and monument, but there are many other subsidiary sites. In its prime the great stupa would have drawn devotees and patronage that would have promoted other monuments there (or been built there in the hope of receiving income). This smaller stupa in the foreground is stupa number Three, which also has a carved gateway at the south end, and behind it is the top of yet another stupa).
Here's another smaller stupa, this one southwest of the Great Stupa, which is visible in the background. This shows what the Great Stupa may have looked like before restoration--a simple rough core of bricks with an umbrella-shaped pedastel on top.
Later Buddhists built shrines that looked a lot like Hindu and Jain temples. These pillars are from a Gupta Period (350-550 C.E.) temple. Later temples even took on standard Hindu iconography, another temple on the property has an image of Goddess Ganga (the Ganges) on the left side of the doorway, and Goddess Yamuna (the Yamuna River) on the right.
As Sanchi became more important, the residents needed places to live. This shows a vihara or Buddhist monastery. Individual "cells" are visible lining the outside wall; the center space would have been a common space. The earliest Buddhists were adamant that the Buddha was an enlightened human being; he was to be followed, not worshipped. Sanchi would have been a place for his disciples to work on their spiritual development, and for lay people to create religious merit through pious gifts (inscriptions record many of these).
Photo Jan. 1989
This is a shell inscription, and was inscribed on one of the pillars lying around at Sanchi. It is definitely writing (and not just decorative) but has never been decoded--the inscriptions are usually so short that there is very little copy to analyze.
January 1989
With the passage of time, the Buddha began to be portrayed in iconic (figural) form, rather than by the symbols that had been used earlier. The best guess is that this transition happened in the first or second century CE. This image from Sanchi, set on the southwest side of the Great Stupa) shows the Buddha sitting in meditation, with the wheel-like halo behind his head, and protective deities around him.
Photo taken January 1989.
