Hansen/Curtis, 1/e, Ch



Visual Evidence: The Buddhist Stupa at Sanchi

This activity corresponds to the "Visual Evidence: The Buddhist Stupa at Sanchi" feature in your textbook. The questions below are designed to help you learn more about the topic. Once you have answered the Comprehension questions, submit your answers and move on to the subsequent questions included in the Analysis and Outside Sources sections. Each section is designed to build upon the one before it, taking you progressively deeper into the subject you are studying. After you have answered all of the questions, you will have the option of emailing your responses to your instructor.

Introduction

The stupa at Sanchi is only one of several attributed to the Mauryan emperor Ashoka. These monuments established certain structural and decorative forms that continued to influence Buddhist architecture throughout Asia for centuries. Further, as you know, Ashoka's stupas honored the Buddha's prohibition against any images of him, representing him instead through symbolic means. However, starting in the second century C.E., sculptors began ignoring the old prohibition and making images of the Buddha, a practice that spread throughout the Buddhist world.

Go to and read the brief overview of Buddhist architecture. When you are finished, use the links and questions below to explore further some aspects of Buddhist architecture and sculpture.

Comprehension

1. How did the site of the Sanchi stupa take the form it has today?

2. What happened to Ashoka's stupas after the fall of the Mauryan Empire?

3. What new form of Buddhist architecture developed in western India after the fall of the Mauryan Empire?

Analysis

Buddhist Stupas

• : Chaukhandi stupa (4th–6th C.E.)

• : Dhamek stupa (c. 500 C.E.)

• : Ruwanveli Saya Stupa, located in Anuradhapura, capital of Sri Lanka from the introduction of Buddhism in the 3rd century B.C. through 8th century C.E.

• : early Chinese pagodas.

1. Examine the Chaukhandi and Dhamek stupas. In what ways do they resemble and differ from the Sanchi stupa? What developments in structure do they suggest?

2. Compare the Ruwanveli Saya Stupa with the Sanchi, Chaukhandi, and Dhamek stupas. What continuities of structure and decoration can you detect? What distinguishes the Sri Lankan stupa from the others?

3. Read about and examine the images of early Chinese pagodas. In what respects do the Chinese structures resemble the South Asian stupas? What elements strike you indigenous Chinese forms?

Outside Sources

1. For more information about the Sanchi stupa go to . What, according to this site, are the unique and historically significant elements of the Sanchi stupa?

2. Go to for examples of images of the Buddha from Gandahara, about which you read in Chapter 3 of your textbook. Examine these images and use the link provided to go to next page. On that page, examine later Pala-style Buddhas. (You can click on each image to enlarge it.) What are the distinctive stylistic features of these two groups of Buddhas?

3. Below are links to three samples of ancient Greek sculpture of the kind the Gandahara sculptors would have see. Examine each and then compare them to the Gandharan statues you considered above. Where can you detect the influence of Greek sculpture on South Asian?

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