Thinkers, Beliefs and buildings

Upanishadic thinkers, fatalists, materialists

• Upanishads thinkers

  • Curious about the meaning of life

  • Possibility of life after death and rebirth

  • Concerned with understanding and expressing the nature of ultimate reality

• Fatalists

  • Everything is predetermined

• Materialists

  • Believe in material life

Central teachings of Jainism

• The entire world is animated, even rocks and stones

• Non-injury to living beings, especially to humans, animals, etc.

• Principle of Ahinsa emphasised

• Cycle of birth and rebirth is shaped through Karma

• Asceticism and penance are required to free oneself from the cycle of Karma

  • Can be achieved through renouncing the world

• Monastic existence is a necessary condition of salvation

The role of Begums of Bhopal in preserving the stupa at Sanchi

• The nawabs of Bhopal, Shahjehan Begum and her successor Sultan Jehan Begum provided

  • Money for the preservation of the ancient site

  • Funded the museum that was built

  • Funded the guest house where John Marshall lived and wrote the volumes

  • Funded the publication of John Marshall’s volumes

• The stupa survived the grubby hands of Europeans and stayed preserved in no small measure due to their wise decisions

The aid of Buddhist literature in understanding the sculptures at Sanchi

• Art historians had to first acquire familiarity with Buddhist literature in order to understand Buddhist literature

• Many early sculpture show Buddha’s presence through symbols such as

  • The empty seat for the meditation of Buddha

  • The stupa for Mahaparinibbana

  • The wheel for the first sermon of the Buddha, at Sarnath

• Such symbols can be understood with the traditions of those who produced these works

• The scene at the northern gateway seems to depict

  • A rural scene with huts and trees.

  • However after study it was found to have been depicting a scene from Vessantara Jataka, a story of a generous prince

• James Fergusson, unaware of Buddhist traditions and myth, considered Sanchi to be a center of tree and serpent worship

  • Arriving on a conclusion only based on the images, he was wrong.

Development in sculpture and architecture associated with the rise of Vaishvanism and Shaivism

• In Hinduism, c.600BCE, there developed two traditions

  • Vaishvanism: Vishnu worshiped as the principal deity

  • Shaivism: Shiva was the chief god

• In these traditions. there was special bond b/w devotee & the God-Bhakti

• Growth of Architecture and sculpture

• Stupas were being made during the time where the first temples that housed images of gods and goddesses were being built

  • Early temples were single small square rooms, called the Garbhagriha with a single doorway for the worshiper

  • Gradually a tall structure known as the Shikhara was built over the central shrine, their walls were often decorated with sculptures

  • Later temples became more elaborate with assembly halls, huge walls and gateways

• Unique feature of early temples: Some of these were hollowed out of huge rocks as artificial caves

• Earlier temples were constructed in c.200 BCE on the order of Asoka for renouncers who belonged to the Ajivika sect

How and why were stupas built?

• How

  • Inscriptions found on the railings and pillars of stupas record donations made for buildings and decorating them

  • Some donations were made by guilds, such as ivory workers who financed part of one of the gateways at Sanchi

  • Some donations were made by kings, such as Satvahanas

  • 100s of donations were made by women and men who had mentioned their names sometimes, adding the place from where they came

  • Bhikkus and Bhikunis also contributes towards building these movements

• Why

  • The places they were built at were regarded as sacred

  • As relics of Buddha such as his bodily remains and objects used by him were buried there

  • These mounds were known as Stupas

  • The tradition of creating stupas may have been pre-Buddhist, but they are now associated with Buddhism

  • Buddhist texts, Ashokavandana, Asoka distrubuted portions of the Buddhist relics to every imp. town

  • By the end of c. 100 BCE, a number of stupas at Bharhut, Sanchi, Sarnath had been built

Social conditions that give way to the rise of Jainism and Buddhism

• The sacrificial traditons

  • The rigveda consists of hymns in praise of a variety of deities, especially Agni, Indra and Soma

  • These were chanted when sacrifices were performed for good health, wealth, sons, etc.

  • At first, sacrifices were performed collectively, later some were performed by the head of the house for the being of the domestic unit

  • More elaborate ones, such as the Rajasuya, were performed by the chiefs and kings, and required Brahamana priests

• New questions about existence

  • Many ideas found in Upanishads show that people were curious about the meaning of life and the possibility of life after death

  • Others, outside of vedic traditions, questioned whether or not there even was a single ultimate reality

  • People also questioned the significance of sacrificial traditions

• Debates and discussions

  • Many of these teachers, including Mahavira and Buddha, questioned the authority of the vedas

  • They also emphasised the individual agency, that men and women could strive to attain liberation from the tribulations of a worldly existence.

    • On the opposite side, an individual’s existence was determined by their birth in a specific caste or gender

Kutugarahshala

• A hut with a pointed roof

• Groves where travelling medicates halted

• A place where debates took place

5 vows taken by jaina monks and nuns

• To observe celibacy

• to abstain from possessing property

• to abstain from killing

• to abstain from lying

• to abstain from stealing