Early Buddhist Art
Artist: unknown
Title: Great Stupa at Sanchi (Stupa I), stairs leading to the berm (medhi)
Material: Stone, brick, plaster, etc.
Site: Sanchi, India
Current Location: Sanchi, India
Period/Date: Mauryan (ca. 323-185 B.C.E.), Sunga (ca. 2nd c.-1st c.
B.C.E.), and later periods
Iconography/Iconology: (Continued from previous page...). The stairway
leading to the medhi indicates that some type of distinction was
made between circumambulation between the lower and upper levels. While
we cannot know what this distinction was on this monument, it has parallels,
even today, at such stupas as Phra Patom Chedi in Thailand, where the upper
level is reserved for advanced practitioners and the performance of very
specific rituals. The physcial presence of the two levels, suggests that
this may also have been the case at the Sanchi Stupa.
Stylistic Comments:
