A Brick Stupa on the Hill
Sanchi stands on a hill near Vidisha in central India. Construction during Ashoka’s period, around the third century BCE, left a brick stupa and a stone pillar. A larger stone envelope later enclosed the brick monument, which remains the core of the Great Stupa.
When John Marshall repaired a dangerously subsiding part of the monument, he exposed the brick core, its stone envelope and successive ground levels. The smaller brick structure lies inside the enlarged body, while later floors accumulated beside the pillar.
References: [1]
Enlarging the Monument
Around the second century BCE, builders substantially enlarged the stupa. They erected masonry around the earlier structure and filled the intervening space with rubble. A high terrace, double stairway on the south and paved paths formed part of the rebuilt monument.
The envelope used local sandstone laid in broadly horizontal courses. Plaster once covered the dome and terrace, and portions survive. The terrace and dome have different foundation arrangements, allowing the repair record to distinguish separate construction components.
References: [1]
Walking around the Stupa
The Great Stupa provided a ground-level circumambulatory path and another on the terrace. A stone railing enclosed the lower route, with entrances near the four cardinal directions. Southern stairs gave access to the upper path.
Uprights, crossbars and coping stones formed the railing. Its construction retained the forms of wooden railings in stone. Together, the mound, routes and enclosure organised repeated movement around a commemorative monument.
References: [1]
Names on the Railing
Short inscriptions on architectural members record their donors. Some identify monks or nuns; others name family relationships, occupations and places of origin. Vidisha, Ujjain and other localities appear within the same complex.
The inscriptions connect a large monument to many individual gifts: an upright, crossbar or coping stone. Carved gateways later transformed the entrances, while the brick core and surrounding stonework retained the earlier stages of the stupa’s growth.