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BHARAHAT, or BARHUT

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 844 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BHARAHAT, or BARHUT , a See also:village in the small See also:state of Nagod in See also:India, lying about 240 15' N. by 8o° 45' E., about 12o m. S.W. of See also:Allahabad. See also:General A. See also:Cunningham discovered there in 1873 the remains of a slupa (i.e. a See also:burial See also:mound over the ashes of some distinguished See also:person) which were excavated, in 1874, by his assistant, J. D. Beglar. The results showed that it must have been one of the most imposing and handsome in India; and it is especially important now from the large number of See also:inscriptions found upon it. The See also:ancient name of the See also:place has not been yet traced, but it must have been a considerable See also:city and its site See also:lay on the high road between the ancient capitals of Ujjeni and Kosambi. The stupa was circular, 70 ft. in See also:diameter and 42 ft. high. It was surrounded by a See also:stone railing Too ft. in diameter, so that between railing and stupa there was an open circle See also:round which visitors could walk; and the whole stood towards the See also:east See also:side of a paved quadrangle about 300 ft. by 320 ft., surrounded by a stone See also:wall. On the See also:top of the stupa was an See also:ornament shaped like the See also:letter T, and as the See also:base of the sdfipa was above the quadrangle, the See also:total height of the See also:monument was between 5o and 6o ft. But its See also:main See also:interest, to us, lies in the railing.

This consisted of eighty square pillars, 7 ft. T in. in height, connected by See also:

cross-bars about 1 ft. broad. Both pillars and cross-bars were elaborately carved in bas-See also:relief, and most of them See also:bore inscriptions giving either the name of the donor, or the subject of the bas-relief, or both. There were four entrances through the railing, facing the See also:cardinal points, and each one protected by the railing coming out at right angles, and then turning back across it in the shape of the letter L. This gave the whole ground See also:plan of the monument, and no doubt designedly so, the shape of a gigantic swastika(i.e. a See also:symbol of See also:good See also:fortune). By the forms of the letters of the inscriptions, and by the architectural details, the See also:age of the monument has been approximately fixed in the 3rd See also:century B.C. The bas-reliefs give us invaluable See also:evidence of the literature, and also of the clothing, buildings and other details of the social conditions of the peoples of Buddhist India at that See also:period. The subjects are taken from the Buddhist sacred books, more especially from the accounts given in them of the See also:life of the See also:Buddha in his last or in his previous births. Unfortunately, only about See also:half the pillars, and about one-third of the cross-bars have been recovered. When the stupa was discovered the villagers had already carried off the greater See also:part of the monument to build their cottages with the stones and bricks of it. The See also:process has gone on till now nothing is See also:left except what General Cunningham found and rescued and carried off to See also:Calcutta. Even the See also:mere See also:money value of the lost pieces must be immense, and among them is the central relic See also:box, which would have told us in whose See also:honour the monument was put up.

See A. Cunningham, The Stiipa of Bharhut (See also:

London, 1879) ; T. W. Rhys Davids, Buddhist India (London, 1903). (T. W. R.

End of Article: BHARAHAT, or BARHUT

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