Major Stupas at Lalitagiri

[Stupas at Lalitagiri, Orissa (Lat. 200 35’ N. and Long. 860 15’ E.)]

At Lalitagiri the stupa (Fig-4) (Plate-V)is located on the northern side of the hillock behind the sculpture shed. From the hilltop a commanding view of the landscape can be seen. A systematic excavation was carried out from the year 1985-86 to 1991-92 by G.C.Chauley the then Superintendent Archaeologist, Bhubaneswar Circle, ASI (IAR 1985-86:62). The area was surveyed and divided in to four trenches and sixteen quadrants 4x4 meter each to make the quadrants intersect at the centre of the mound covering the whole mound and its peripheral areas.

Excavation yielded interesting results; the site represents the oldest Buddhist establishment in Orissa and gave a continuous cultural sequence for the history of Buddhism in Orissa from second century BCE to eleventh-twelfth century CE.

The stupa’s base measures 15 m in diameter and along with the pradakshinapatha around it, it measures 36 m in circumference. Two constructional phases have been found here. In the first stage the circular wall of the drum was erected and the core was filled with rubble and earth. Then in the second stage the stupa was covered with finely dressed sand-stone without any arrangement for interlocking and a rectangular stone covered the top central part which had a square central hole possibly for erecting a shaft for the chatravali. This was possibly the base of the harmika. Besides, fragments of the harmika were found during the excavation (Chauley 1985-86: 62). At a height of 1.30 m above the pavement, the stupa has a ledge of 1.20 m. From here the anda portion begins and the diameter of the dome (anda) decreases. The reconstructed anda portion has a height of 1.60 m, making the total height of the stupa to 3.10 m. No steps were found leading to the ledge which makes it clear that it was not used for circumambulation purpose. The stupa is surrounded by a circular pedestrian area of dressed sandstone slabs over a brick soling and its edge is indicated by a course of raised stones 10 cm high from the pedestrian. This served as a circumambulatory passage (pradakshinapatha) around the stupa. The sizes of the stones used are 75 cm x 60 cm x 30 cm. The stupa with a drum having a diameter of 15 m made the excavator believe that the stupa must have had a height of about 8 m or more above the ground in its hey days.

The most important discovery from this stupa is the relic caskets. It was for the first time, relic caskets were reported from Orissa. These caskets when opened contained sacred relics of Buddha or probably of some important Buddhist monk. This discovery has provided many important and unique technique of preservation of relics which was hitherto unknown in India (Chauley 1997: 143-146). Although in the past relics of Lord Buddha have been reported from important Buddhist sites like Sarnath, Piprahwa, Nagarjunakonda, Amaravati and other sites but the technique of preservation as adopted by Orissan Buddhists is of its own kind. Usually, the relic casket is made of steatite or crystal casket containing the relic of Buddha, as are reported from Sanchi, Piparahwa, Amravati, Nagarjnakonda etc. At Lalitagiri four sets of caskets one inside the other like the Chinese puzzle box was found.

From the core of the stupa’s anda portion at a height of 50 cm from the ledge three caskets were unearthed from the north, east and south respectively.The caskets are made out of khondalite stone in the shape of miniature stupas.The first container of Khondalite is made up of two pieces.The lower is in the form of medhi (drum) portion, which has a hollow groove (slot) in the centre and the upper detachable lid portion is in the shape of the anda portion with the knob resembling the harmika. In the central groove, was placed a traditional steatite casket (second one).Inside the steatite casket, a silver casket (third one) exists and within it is a gold casket (fourth and last).This golden casket preserved the sacred relic. Of the three sets of caskets (khondalite), only two of them contained all the three inner caskets. The casket found from the southern direction was found empty (Plate-VI & VII). The other two caskets, which have the relics, are almost similar to each other in the sequence of their arrangement, the material used, variation being only in its shape and size. In one of the caskets the relic (bone / dhatu) was found wrapped in a gold foil, whereas in the other the bone was kept as such. The use of gold foil over the bone in one of the caskets, itself speaks about the importance attached to the person to whom the bone belonged. According to Chauley the third one was probably robbed in the past or must have been used by the Buddhists for construction of some other stupa and the relic wrapped in gold foil is probably that of Lord Buddha. (Chauley 1997:145).

The relic casket does not contain any inscriptions as it is reported from Sanchi. But when it comes to the number of caskets found, it is very much similar to those reported from Sanchi. At Sanchi, we come across three independent caskets along with the inscriptions “Buddhasa”, “Sariputasa”, and “Mudagalayanasa” (Chauley 1997:145). The excavator further opines that if all the three relic-caskets would have yielded relics, there would have been no doubt that like at Sanchi, the Buddhist of Lalitagiri also got a share of the relics of not only Lord Buddha but also of Sariputra and Mudagalyana.

The stupa is devoid of any sculptural ornamentation and the architecture is very plain, without any offset on the platform, medhi or the anda portion except for the ledge that separates the medhi from the anda. Excavations in a small trial trench adjoining the drum of the stupa revealed that the stupa was built after levelling the ground without any foundation. During the excavations, a number of fragments of railing pillars were found scattered around the stupa, these might have encircled the stupa. Some of these pillars have lenticular sockets for inserting the suchis in it.From the style of these pillars, it can be inferred that these are of a very early date and are very similar to the pillars found at Bodh-gaya in Bihar (Patnaik 2000:95). Approach to the stupa was from the eastern slope of the hill. From here traces of dressed stones were found (probably fragments of the earlier steps). The stupa with its plain circular drum portion shows its Hinayana affiliation and might have belonged to the earliest phase of Buddhism at Lalitagiri.

While cleaning the surrounding area during excavations on the northwest of the stupa two stone cisterns were discovered, cut into the rock surface of the hill.They measured roughly around 6’ x 6’4” with an un-uniform depth of one metre. Another cistern which is slightly bigger than the one found near the stupa area is situated in the nearby Prabhadi hill at Lalitagiri. Water used to get stored during the monsoon through the channels cut in to the rock on the hill slope. The over flown water from one cistern ran down into the other. It seems that some wooden plank was used on the southern side of the first cistern to stop overflowing of water, and raise the capacity of the cistern.