Ramesh Susarla
Buddha project is a magnificent Amaravathi Mahastupa
AMARAVATHI: The125-feet Dhyana Buddha Statue project here has virtually pieced together the magnificent Amaravathi Mahastupa, rich with carvings from unique Amaravathi school of art in sculpting and is the apt gift for the Buddha Purnima on Saturday.
The Dhyana Buddha project conceived designed and executed by Social Welfare Joint Director Regulla Mallikarjuna Rao from 2002, could be completed to 80 per cent of its proposed final shape. While the Department of Tourism has taken up the maintenance part, finalising the execution of original project works would allow people to watch all the replicas of on original stupa’s exterior drum wall and railings.
Amaravathi sculptures - 98 of them - are scattered all over the world and Indian museums denying the locals and visitors to the Mahastupa, considered most holy place for Buddhists. The initiative taken by the Government official with an artistic bent of mind, to sculpt replicas of all the lost pieces of Green Limestone beauties of Amaravathi Sculptures and Nagarjunakonda at Dhyana Buddha Project provides people a wholesome idea of what they had lost due to their negligence.
Currently the sculptures are preserved in the British Museum, London, Government Museum at Chennai, Amaravathi Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Indian Museum, Kolkata, in museums at Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
That drum below the main dome was 162 feet in diameter, encircled at a distance of 15 feet by an outer railing, making a total diameter of 192 feet.
As is visible from the painstakingly reproduced panels, this railing was richly carved both inside and outside. The ‘reliefs’ were also covered by a projecting base around the drum, and the top of it provided a second higher, level for circumambulation.
This upper processional path, embellished with an additional sculpture gallery, stood about 20 feet above the ground and was interrupted at each of the four railing entrances by an offset a panel unit surmounted by five lofty columns. The columns in effect take the place of toranas, which were absent. The mature art of Amaravathi region is one of the Indian major and distinct styles considered by many critics as the finest school of Indian sculptures. While the original construction began in 2nd Century BC, the finer carvings are believed to have been completed between 150 AD and 200 AD.
Published - May 08, 2009 12:00 am IST
