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Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient
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PRESENTATION
Vaisya Tekri stupa, Ujjain
Vaisya Tekri stupa, Ujjain
P. Skilling @ European Association for South Asian Archaeology and Art
03 JULY 12
PETER SKILLING will present paper on « Stupas and the spread of Buddhism in India: the early period » at the 21st conference of the European Association for South Asian Archaeology and Art, l’École du Louvre, 2-6 juillet, Paris.
ABSTRACTStupas and the spread of Buddhism in India: the early period
Buddhism spread rapidly during the lifetime of the master and the centuries that followed. In this paper, I present the results of field trips conducted in 2010 and 2011, during which I visited recently excavated and lesser known sites in Madhya Pradesh. These include Deo Kothar, Dhunigarhi, Satdhara, Murel Khurd, Ujjain, Panguraria, and Talpura. They do not constitute or fall along any single route, but in general belong to the communication network of the Daksinapatha, the route to the south.
Many of the sites (though not necessarily the monuments) can be presumed to date from the Nanda or Mauryan periods. Most seem to have been abandoned by the fifth or sixth centuries of the Buddhist Era (that is, by the beginning or early centuries of the Christian era). The monuments consist of stupas made of bricks and dressed stone. In addition to several immense stupas, there are stupas of all sizes – large, medium, and small. Many, including the small ones, have ambulatories to be reached by flights of steps. Large and enigmatic stone platforms are often placed near to the main stupas. The sites are often associated with rock shelters and rock paintings.
The number of stupas attests to a remarkable diffusion of Buddhism along these routes. Inscriptions have been recovered from some sites, but for the most part the monuments have no names and no written history. In the attempt to understand them, it is necessary to read the monuments together with texts, bearing in mind that in their redacted forms the texts are generally later than the artefacts.


 conference