The Stupa

Title: The Great Stupa at Sanchi
Artist: N/A
Location: N/A
Culture of Origin: Maurya Dynasty
Date: 322 - 185 B.C.
Medium: N/A
Description:
The stupa is a burial mound. After the physical death of Gautama (Buddha), his body was cremated and his ashes given to the eight cities in which the most important events of his life took place. The ashes were entombed in hemispherical mounds and became sites of pilgrimage for the faithful. The stupas are believed to be the miniatures of the universe.
The best preserved of all Indian stupas is that at Sanchi in central India. It is a simple hemisphere of brick, possibly enclosed by wooden railing. The solid over the stone, cut in the shape of bricks. The umbrella on the top of the stupa indicates the royalty of the Buddha at the same time that it symbolizes the tree at the center of the old Aryan village (Under which Gautama became Buddha). In addition it implies the realm of the gods. The gates that were added to the stupa in the Early Andhra period arranged so that one must turn to the left upon entering; that is, they are offset so that they form a swastika (symbol of the sun). The pilgrim moved around the stupa in a clockwise manner, keeping the right shoulder toward the stupa, in the same way in which the sun was thought to revolve about the earth. When doing so they were meditating. Sanchi gateways depicted the stories of the previous lives of Gautama as well as allusions to his mortal life (No human ofrm of the Buddha is found there, only symbolic representations by the lotus, the wheel, the tree, and the small stupa). The largest figures on the gates are Yakshis (Female tree and fertility spirits) holding a branches of mango tree. This motif refers to the legend of the birth of Gautama.

Ashoka's Memorial Pillars

Title: Memorial Pillars
Artist: N/A
Location: India
Culture of Origin: Maurya Dynasty
Date: 322-185 B.C.
Medium: Sandstone
Description:
Monolithic shafts topped by animal capitals. They were highly polished, even though made of sandstone. The four lions supported a huge wheel, symbolizing First Sermon (Buddha), The Turning of the Wheel of the Law. Both wheel and lions are ancient sun symbols and imply the Buddha illuminating the spiritual world as the sun illumines the physical world. The lions rest upon a circular base around which four small animals follow one another; they are a bull, an elephant, a horse and a lion. Between them are four miniature wheels repeating the form of the great wheel originally supported by the lions. Below the circular section a bell-shaped base in the form of a lotus with hanging petals makes the transition from animals to the smooth shaft of the column. The bull is the zodiacal sign under which the Buddha was born. The shaft itself symbolizes the central universal axis, which is a symbol of time and space. The four smaller wheels may well have stood for the four planets that are in conjunction with the sun at the four divisions of the year.

Lecture #7: Early buddhism

Exams: Exams handed out this week in sections.
Buddha were a historical figure.
Discusses 8 "paths to enlightenment" (models).
Discusses Emperor Ashoka and its impact on Buddhism.
3 major works of art in Ashoka period: Stupaat Sanchi, Column Capital at Sarnath, Chitya Hall at Karli.
Early Buddhis Sites:
Showed the map.
Pokazivaet stolbi i simboli buddisma. Obsuzhdaet l'vov i chto oni predstavlyali.
Discusses Anicomic Imagenary.
Obsuzhdaet chto znachili wheels, horses, lotus flower vnizu l'vov.

Stupa
Discusses Stupa
Govorit nah oni nuzhni. Govorit pro participation. Rasskazivaet pro hozhdenie pokrugu vokrug Stupa i zachem eto nado delat'. Govorit pro matematichekuyu perfection of the Stupa.
Discusses Stupa's gates
Chto na nih izobrazheno Govorit o monkeys.
Discusses Yakshi

Chaitya Hall
Discusses Chaitya Hall.
Discusses Methuna couples. Obyasnyaet svyazannost' etot mir s spiritual world.
Tam stupa est' vnutri opyat'.