Page:The Buddhist Antiquities Of Nagarjunakonda MASI 54 Longhurst A. H..djvu/30

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Fortunately, instead of placing the relics in the centre of the Great Stupa, they were deposited in one of the outer chambers on the north-western side of the stupa, where they escaped the notice of the treasure-seekers who wrecked the monument. As the stupa contained 40 chambers, all of which had to be excavated down to the natural ground level, the excavation of this monument was a very laborious task that took a month to complete. At last, when we had given up all hopes of finding anything of interest, one of the coolies noticed a small broken pot in the north-western corner of the chamber marked with a cross on the plan [Plate XIII (b)]. The pot had been crushed when the chamber was filled with earth by the Buddhists, and all that remained is shown in. Plate XIII (c) and (d). On the surface were a few white crystal beads and a tiny gold box. After carefully sifting the contents of the pot the following objects were found:—a fragment of bone placed in a small round gold reliquary three-quarters meter. This was placed in a little silver casket, shaped like a were placed in the pot and not in the casket. The latter unfortunately was corroded and broken, but a replica was made, which appears in the photograph showing the finds recovered from the tomb. The earthenware pot containing the casket and reliquary was placed originally in the corner of the chamber, which was filled up with earth as soon as the consecration ceremony was over. The brick dome was then built over the remains, and the plastering and decoration of the stupa completed. No traces of orn: tal plaster were found in the debris round the monument, except portions of simple mouldings that once decorated the plinth and cornice of the drum. It must have been a perfectly plain structure like those of the Asokan age before the ayaka-pillars were added in the second century A.D.

In the inscriptions belonging to the Great Stipa, the monument is called the “Mahachetiya of the Lord, the Supreme Buddha,” clearly showing that the tomb was consecrated to the Great Teacher and to nobody else. The discovery of the dhatu, or bone relic, proves that the monument was a dhatugarbha, or “tomb containing a relic,” and that if was not a mere “dedicatory” stupa. The latter were memorial stupas, which contained no relics, and, like Asoka’s pillars, were erected on celebrated sites sacred to the Buddha, such as his birthplace, and so on. It is, therefore, obvious that the Great Stupa did not belong to this class of memorial monument. The inscriptions do not definitely state why the stupa was built; they merely state that the ayaka-pillars were dedicated to the Buddha, and that they were set up by the princess Charntisiri and other royal ladies of the same house. Supposing the stupa to have been already in existence prior to the erection of the pillars, it would have been necessary first to enlarge the drum and build the ayaka-platforms to accommodate the pillars, and then replaster and decorate the stupa from top to bottom to complete the work. In tact, it would have meant rebuilding the whole of the exterior of the monument. Dr. Vogel is of opinion that the inscriptions show that the Mahachetiya was “founded" by Chamtisiri, but it is by no means clear whether she built, rebuilt, or merely