Fig. 20.1: A small bust of a male person ofimportance – was he a priest or a king?

Fig. 20.3: A bronze statue of agirl standing

Sculptures and Buildings

Archaeologists digging the ancient cities of Indus Valley found someArchaeologists digging the ancient cities of Indus Valley found someArchaeologists digging the ancient cities of Indus Valley found someArchaeologists digging the ancient cities of Indus Valley found someArchaeologists digging the ancient cities of Indus Valley found somevery nice stone and bronze sculptures besides seals carved on stonesvery nice stone and bronze sculptures besides seals carved on stonesvery nice stone and bronze sculptures besides seals carved on stonesvery nice stone and bronze sculptures besides seals carved on stonesvery nice stone and bronze sculptures besides seals carved on stonesand baked clay figurines. These were made some 4000 years ago. Youand baked clay figurines. These were made some 4000 years ago. Youand baked clay figurines. These were made some 4000 years ago. Youand baked clay figurines. These were made some 4000 years ago. Youand baked clay figurines. These were made some 4000 years ago. Youcan see some of their pictures here. You can see that these depictcan see some of their pictures here. You can see that these depictcan see some of their pictures here. You can see that these depictcan see some of their pictures here. You can see that these depictcan see some of their pictures here. You can see that these depicteverything in a natural manner. We don’t know what they were used for.everything in a natural manner. We don’t know what they were used for.everything in a natural manner. We don’t know what they were used for.everything in a natural manner. We don’t know what they were used for.everything in a natural manner. We don’t know what they were used for.

Fig. 20.4: A mother goddess figurineof terracotta

Fig. 20.2: A beautiful HarappanSeal showing a bull

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Harappan Cities – The first citiesof the subcontinent

In chapter 6, you read that humans led amigrant or nomadic life as hunter gathersfor a very long time. It was only 10,000years ago that people began agriculture andanimal herding in modern Syria andPalestine. In the Indian sub-continent, someof the earliest villages are found in theNorth west, in Baluchistan dating fromseven to eight thousand years ago. Peoplein different regions took to agriculture andvillage life very slowly and most peoplestill practiced hunting and gathering. Butwhen did the first cities emerge? In theIndian sub-continent, it happened some5000 years ago again in the Northwesternparts in Baluchistan, Sindh, Punjab andGujarat. Archaeologists have excavatedremains of large cities. Though we do notknow the actual names of those cities, wecall them by the modern names of thevillages in which the remains have beenfound. You may have heard of famous citieslike Harappa, Mohenjodaro, Kalibangan andLothal. These are among the most ancientcities of our subcontinent. These citieswere spread from Afghanistan in the Northto Gujarat in the south and Punjab andHaryana in the east and Baluchistan in thewest and had many common features.Archaeologists use a common name“Harappan Culture” to denote this phase ofour history. Sometimes, it is also called‘The Indus Valley Civilisation’ as most ofthe important sites of this culture weresituated in the plains watered by River Indusand its tributaries.

Find out the names of rivers thatflow in these regions. Locate these

places on a map and see how farare they from Hyderabad.Do you think Telangana was part ofthe Harappan culture? Would thepeople living in Telangana haveknown about the Harappan people?How?If you visit a place, how will youdecide if it is a village or a town?What kind of activities go on in acity that are different from avillage?How do you think archaeologistsfigure out from remains of ancientruins if a place was a village or acity? Can you think of the specialfeatures in the remains of a citywhich will not be there in theremains of a village?

Cities duringIndus valleycivilisation

Harappan Sites

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What are cities?By ‘cities’, we mean a place where a

large number of people live who do notdepend on either agriculture or huntinggathering for their livelihoods. Citiesprimarily have people from three or fourkinds of professions: artisans like potters,metal smiths, carpenters, masons, stonecutters etc.; traders who buy and sell thingsmade by other people both in the city andoutside of it; rulers like kings, nobles,priests and administrators; and finally, poorlabourers or soldiers who serve others.Most of these people would not cultivateland or grow crops and therefore, dependedupon the grains produced by farmers ormilk and meat etc. produced by herders.Cities would procure these grains throughtaxes on the farmers or in exchange forartisanal products. Thus, like today, even inthose early times most people probablylived in villages or in forests.

Do you think the ruins of thehouses of rulers and houses ofartisans would look similar ordifferent? How ?Do you think it is possible to findout if there were traders in a cityand where they lived by juststudying the ruins?Why do you think would thefarmers have agreed to give theirproduce to city dwellers?

Features of the citiesThe Harappan cities emerged very

rapidly some four thousand six hundredyears ago and flourished for about seven

hundred years and eventually disappearedabout three thousand nine hundred yearsago. Buildings in the Harappan cities werebuilt with good baked bricks of a standardsize and shape. This is a remarkable featureof these cities. Most of the important citiesshow carefully planned development oftowns as they have a clear lay out withstraight roads which intersect each otherlike in a chess board. The roads had drainsto carry dirty water from houses and rainwater. Most of the cities were divided intotwo clear sections, one, a high citadel inwhich there were some important publicbuildings like granaries, halls and largebuildings; second, a lower part whichseemed to have had residential blocks forartisans, traders, and other ordinary people.It appears that the rulers lived or worked inthe citadel and wanted to distinguishthemselves from the ordinary people.

Do you see any difference in thelay out of areas where powerfulpeople live or work and whereordinary people live in today’stowns? Why is there a difference?

What kind of artisans lived in theHarappan cities? You can guess one kindof artisans from the bricks and buildings –the brick makers or probably potters andmasons. Harappan potters produced someof the finest pots made in Indian history,and made a large variety of clay pots andtoys. People of Harappan cities extensivelyused objects made of different kinds ofmetals like copper, silver, tin etc and mixedmetals like bronze. However, they did not

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use iron which came into use in India muchlater. Copper being a rare metal had limiteduse. Harappans continued to use stone andwood for most of their daily needs. Theyused very fine and long stone blades forcutting, finely carved stone seals for trading,beautiful and colourful polished stone beadsfor ornaments, and stone weights andmeasures for trading. They wove cotton andwoollen clothes and some small fragmentsof these have survived. They also used seashells to make objects of daily use likeladles, spoons and bangles.

The use of seals and weightsindicate that the Harappan cities hada large number of traders who tookmerchandise from one place toanother. In fact, they also went byships to trade in distant lands likeIraq where too many cities haddeveloped. They must have usedbullock carts and boats to transporttheir goods.

Do you think that the same artisanscan make all these goods ordifferent artisans were needed formaking different kinds of things?Why do you think so?

LanguageWe do not have any books written by the

Harappan people ; we do have some smallinscriptions on seals etc. but we don’t knowhow to read them. Hence, we do not knowwhat language they spoke and if they spokeany common language at all. We also don’tknow what names they called themselves,

Fig. 20.5: Dockyard of Lothal - Imagine, the size of the boat that can fit here.(Dimensions 37meast-west, 22m north-south)

Fig. 20.6: Citadel of Mohenjodaro

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farming and herding people. However,the great cities of the Harappan culturegradually disappeared forever, to beburied under mud. They werediscovered in the early twentieth centurywhen archaeologists began a systematicstudy of this lost civilisation.

Do you know of people who havechanged their livelihood – from beingfarmers to factory workers or officeworkers or shopkeepers? Or factoryworkers who take to odd jobs in themarket? Or people who have to leavetheir ancestral place and go to newplaces in search of work? Describetheir life and the problems andchallenges faced by them.

or their rulers and gods and even their cities.You will also read about their religiousbeliefs in a later chapter.Rulers

We don’t know who ruled these cities.Since most of the cities were spread oversuch a large area and had so many featuresin common, it has been suggested by somethat there must have been one centralauthority regulating all these things.However, was it a king or a priest or a groupof elected leaders, we do not know. Theyprobably lived in the citadels and regulatedthe life of all city-dwellers from there.

Change in livelihoodIt appears that some seven hundred years

after the great Harappan cities developed,the towns declined. Trade and artisanalproduction declined and people moved outof these cities to villages. In fact, somehistorians believe that many rivers whichflowed through this area dried up andpeople shifted further eastwards towardsGanga river. They mingled with other

Fig. 20.8: Drianage system in a street inMohenjodaro

Fig. 20.7: Great Bath of Mohenjodaro(Dimensions 11.8x7metres)

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Sculpture after Indus Valley Civilisation

A little later, the art of casting metalfigures spread to Maharashtra. Some veryexquisite bronze figures were found duringdigging. These were probably made some3000 years ago. Do you think they couldhave been toys?

The next important phase of sculpturebelongs to the Mauryan period, that isaround 2200 years ago. King Ashoka setup some tall, smoothly polished pillars inmany places. They were usually made ofone piece of stone. Ashoka’s messageswere carved on them. They also had somefigures of animals at their top. These arecalled capitals. The most famous amongthem is the Lion Capital of Sarnath set upbyAshoka in the place where Buddha firstpreached his teachings. These four majesticlions facing the four directions hold theWheel of Dharma on their pedestal.

Do you feel that the lions looknatural or do they look artificial,posing for the sculpture?You must have seen these often.Where do you see pictures of theselions? Fig. 20.11: Rampurva Bull

These pillars and the Lion Capitalrepresent the power and majesty of theMauryan emperors. Compare this capitalwith the Bull capital in Rampurva. Here youcan see that the bull looks more natural andquite similar to the Harappan seal’s bull.

Fig. 20.10: Sarnath Lion Capital

Fig: 20. 9. Daimabad Bronzes

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the stupa represents the universe and thecentral pillar being the axis around whichthe earth revolves and which connects theworld below, the earth and the heavens.Pilgrims worship the stupa by offeringflowers etc., and going round it inpradakshina and meditating in front of it.

Can you compare a stupa with atemple and point out thesimilarities and differencesbetween them and how do peopleworship them?

Archeologists have found remains ofstupas from very early times in severalplaces in Andhra Pradesh like Amaravati,Bhattiprolu, Ramatirtham, Salihundam etc.A crystal casket containing the relics of theBuddha was found at Bhattiprolu Stupa.

Buddhist Stupas and ViharasGiven below is the picture of one of the

most famous stupas in India – the SanchiStupa. Look at the photo. You can see thatit is like a hemisphere (half ball) – just theway the sky looks when you look up.

A stupa is built on a platform. In the centreof a stupa relics of Buddha or otherimportant monks (relics are remains of thebody like teeth, bone, hair etc) were buried.The hemisphere is fully packed and youcannot enter it like a temple. Above it thereis a pillar topped by umbrella. The stupa isusually surrounded by a stone fence withdecorated gateways. Initially, in Ashoka’stimes they were built with mud, brick andwood but later they were made with stones.

The stupa has many meanings – it issupposed to represent the Buddha. At thesame time, it is believed that the dome of

Fig. 20.12: Sanchi stupa in Madhya Pradesh. It is one of themost important stupas built by King Ashoka. Can you identify the

hemisphere, the platform, the umbrella and the fence?

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Amaravati Stupa in Guntur district is themost famous one in Andhra Pradesh. Thiswas built during the rule of Satavahanasabout 1900 years ago.

Fig.20.15 shows a sculpture paneldepicting the stupa. Can you see someflying figures on the top? These aresupposed to be gods from heavens whocame to worship the Buddha. At the bottom,you can see some men and women bowingdown and worshipping. You can also see thefour lions on the gateway. What do youthink they signify?

Today, the Amaravathistupa is just a mound ofrubble. All that we can do isimagine how this great stupawas in the past. The panelshelp us to imagine how itmust have looked 1900years ago. As you can seefrom the picture, the stupawas covered with panels ofsculptures depicting theBuddha and his teachings.

Fig. 20.13: Bhuddist Stupa from Nelakondapally, KhammamDistrict. Can you identify nicely stacked bricks

Fig. 20.14: Amaravathi stupa in AndhraPradesh

These panels were found by the British andwere taken away to London. Some of thepanels that could not be transported werekept in Madras Museum. Based on thesepanels, people have tried to imagine howthe stupa would have looked. See thepicture of reconstruction and compare itwith the panel.

Fig. 20.15: Reconstruction of Amaravathistupa

Plan of stupa

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Another important stupa was theNagarjunakonda stupa. It was a part ofVijayapuri, the capital city of Ikshvakukings. It was situated on the banks ofKrishna River. Vijayapuri had a largenumber of stupas, viharas and palaces. Italso had a beautifully designedamphitheatre and ghats leading to the river.Unfortunately, today the entire city liesunder water – submerged in theNagarjunasagar dam. A large number ofsculptures and other remains have beenremoved and kept in a museum nearby.

Look at some of the sculpture panelsfrom Nagarjunakonda and Amaravati givenbelow. These sculpture panels representthe earliest sculptural activity in SouthIndia. You can get a glimpse of the livespeople of those times from them.

As time went on, sculptors startedmaking large and complete figures insteadof just the reliefs shown above. Largestatues of the Buddha gave people an ideaof the peaceful, calm and serenepersonality of the Buddha. The mostfamous sculptures of the Buddha comefrom Gandhara in the Northwest, Mathuraand Saranath in Uttar Pradesh (Fig: 17.11).We can see some of these sculptures inNagarjunakonda too.

Fig. 20.16: A panel from Amaravati showingthe calming of an elephant (Nalagiri) by the

Buddha. The royal elephant went out ofcontrol and the people on the street were panic

stricken. However, on seeing the Buddha,the elephant calmed down and bowed downto him. Do you notice how they have shown astory in a panel? What could be the message

of the story?

Fig. 20.17: A panel from Nagarjunakondashowing the admission of six princes and the

barber Upali into the Sangha. In order to teachhumility to the princes, the Buddha admitted

Upali first and the rest after him. You can seeUpali seated on a low stool besides the Buddha

Fig. 20.18: Panel from Sanchi shows the dailylife of villagers. It is a beautiful panel and

shows the visit of the Buddha to a village. Canyou make a list of activities being done by thepeople in this panel? Do you get to see similar

scenes in today's villages?

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Viharas were the monasteries or livingplaces of Buddhist monks where religiouseducation was imparted. A vihara usuallyhad small rooms around an open courtyardand had a small shrine containing a stupaor an image of the Buddha at one end. Thisshrine was called a chaitya, which was alsoa prayer hall for the monks.

There are cave viharas excavated on hillsides like in Nasik and Karle. These too havesome beautiful sculptures carved on them.You will read about them in the next paragraph.

The other viharas were built with brickor stone blocks like in Takshashila,Nagarjunakonda and Nalanda, whichbecame great places of learning. InViharas, monks taught Buddhist scripturesto disciples. Along with impartingeducation in Viharas, monks also treatedthe physical ailments of people. We findmany inscriptions from these viharas,which tell us that ordinary men and women– farmers, traders, soldiers, and artisans –made liberal donations for building and theother expenses of these viharas.

Buddhist holy places of learning alsoattracted the pilgrims from many othercountries. Chinese pilgrims Fa-hi-an,Itsing and Hu- en-Tsang came to visit placesassociated with the life of the Buddha aswell as famous monasteries.

Pilgrims are people who take upjourneys to holy places of worship.

Hu-En-Tsang, and others spent timestudying in Nalanda (Bihar), the mostfamous Buddhist monastery of the period.This is how he describes it:

“The teachers are men of thehighest ability and talent. They follow

the teachings of the Buddha in allsincerity. The rulers of the monasteryare strict, and everyone has to followthem. Discussions are heldthroughout the day, and the old andthe young mutually help one another.Learned men from different cities comehere to clear their doubts. The gatekeeper asks new entrants difficultquestions. They are allowed to enteronly after they have answered them.Seven or eight out of every ten are notable to answer.”

Rock cut Chaityas and EarlyTemples

Traders, artisans and kings of the timesof the Satavahanas donated generously tobuild unique kinds of chaityas and viharasin several places in Maharashtra like Karle,Bhaja, Kanheri and Nasik. These were builtlike caves on hill sides. Stone workers,carved rocks and reproduced the structuresmade by the carpenters with wood. Theymade large prayer halls, stupas and smallrooms for monks – all made in rock. Theyalso carved beautiful images of people andanimals and some times of the Buddha.Look at these pictures of the Karle chaitya,which was built about 2100 years ago.

Do you think the man and thewoman shown in the sculpture hadequal status? Give reasons.Which part of the chaitya do youthink was carved out first and whichpart was carved the last?

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Fig. 20.19: Outside gate ofKarle cave chaitya

Fig. 20.20: Inside a Chaitya

Fig. 20.21 & 20.22: Sculptures from Karle

Fig. 20.23: Early Buddhist temple from Sanchi

Even then carpenters and masons madetemples and chaityas with mud, wood andstones. Some of these temples were for godslike Krishna while others are for the Buddha.But they have not survived. At Sanchi inMadhya Pradesh, we get to see one of theearliest surviving stone temples. It is a verysimple structure, with just a small room(called garbhagriha) in which the idol ofthe Buddha was kept, and a small open porchor mandapa with no walls but only pillars.The door and the pillars are beautifullycarved. However, the temple has a flat roofwithout any tower or shikhara on it. It wasbuilt around 1600 years ago. See thepictures.

Chaitya

Vihara

Relics

Keywords

Monks

Stupa

Monastery

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Improve your learning

1. Why do you think Ashoka chose lions and bulls for his pillars rather than cows orparrots? What animal would you have chosen if you were in his place? Give reasonsfor your choice.

2. Many stupas of Andhra Pradesh are on the banks of rivers (like Salihundam,Nagarjunakonda, Amaravati etc). Why do you think the monks selected these placesto build stupas?

3. Look at the sculpture showing the calming of the elephant. Who are the peoplewatching the event from a height?

4. Why do you think only the rock cut viharas and chaityas have survived tilltoday?

5. Compare the features of a Chaitya and a temple. Do you think the mode of worshipin a Chaitya and a temple would be different?

6. Why are the Buddhist Stupas and Chaityas sacred?

7. How did the Buddhist monks probably use the Viharas and Chaityas?

8. Locate Buddhist and Jain sites on the outline map of India.

9. Read the first para of page 178 (Vihara’s were the ...... for the monks) and commenton it.

Project:

Visit a place of worship in your village or town and draw a sketch of the structure. Tryto get the name of each part, its meaning and use. Prepare a report about this place ofworship and conduct an exhibition in your class.SCERT TELA

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