Bharhut Stupa
Bharhut Gateway · Bharahut
Shunga 187–78 BCE·Shunga (Maurya successors)·🇮🇳 Madhya Pradesh, Satna District, roadside mound between Jabalpur and Allahabad, India
About
About Bharhut Stupa
Great Shunga Buddhist stupa (c.150 BCE) whose 8 m-high gateway and 3.2 m limestone railing — longest early Indian stone railing (40 m diameter stupa) — was dismantled in 1873–76 by Cunningham and is now reassembled in Indian Museum, Kolkata, with surviving site as brick core mound. Bharhut railing reliefs are earliest narrative Buddhist art: Jataka tales, Ashoka visiting Bodhi Tree, and Vessantara with Brahmi labels, key for literacy and Buddhist iconography before Mathura–Sanchi.
Why it mattersEarliest inscribed Buddhist narrative reliefs; crucial for dating Sanchi and Mathura; Jataka identifications via labels prove early Pali canon existence.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Why dismantled rather than preserved in situ unlike Sanchi?
Theories
- 01Shunga aniconic Buddha representation; guild donation model
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.150–100 BCE
- Period
- Shunga 187–78 BCE
- Culture
- Shunga (Maurya successors)
- Builders
- Shunga donors and guilds
- Purpose
- Theravada memorial stupa and pilgrimage axis
- Abandoned
- c.500 CE after Gupta period; brick quarried medieval
- Rediscovered
- 1873 by Alexander Cunningham
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.150 BCE
Stupa brick core and stone railing with gateway torana erected
1873–76
Cunningham dismantles railing to Indian Museum, Kolkata
On the ground
Structures & features
24.4500° N · 80.8500° E · 320 m · 1 mapped feature
Stupa brick core mound
stupa coreCircular brick base 20.6 m diameter
24.4502° N · 80.8502° E
Gallery