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SYMBOLISM IN BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE OF THE ANURADHAPURA PERIOD (SRI LANKA) AS REVEALED BY THE ’FREE-STANDING' THUPA. SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE BY NIHAL N.N. BODHINAYAKE, B.Arch (NSW). FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES KENSINGTON. AUGUST 1979. ^ / \ cl UNIVERSIIV QF N.S.W. 23016 18. APR. 80 LIBRARY A toad and tadpoles live in a pond. The toad goes to land and comes back to the tadpoles. Tadpoles ask, "Mother, where did you go?" "I went to the land". "What is land? Is it a place where we can swim?" "No". "Is it a place with water like here?" "No". "Does it have boyancy?" "No". "Then there is no land". "Yes, there is". "You must eat well, develop your limbs, shed your tail, then you can go to the land". CONTENTS. pages 1. INTRODUCTION I - xi 2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xii - xii i BOOK I : INTRODUCTION 3. INTRODUCTION TO THERAVADA BUDDHISM 1 - 21 4. INTRODUCTION TO SRI LANKA AND ANURADHAPURA 22 - 36 5. INTRODUCTION TO THE THUPA AT ANURADHAPURA 37 - 70 BOOK II : SYMBOLISM OF THE THUPA 6. THE "CENTRE" 71 89 7. THE "AXIS OF THE UNIVERSE" 90 99 8. THE "ORIENTATION" 100 106 9. THE "THREE WORLDS" AND THE BUDDHA, THE LOKAVIDU (THE "KNOWER OF WORLDS") 107 151 BOOK III : APPENDIX 10. THE MEANING OF SYMBOLISM 152 - 174 11. THE "EUCLOSED-THUPAS" OR CETIYA-GHARAS 175 - 178 SOURCES AND REFERENCES 179 - 183 GLOSSARY OF PALI AND SANSKRIT WORDS 184 - 189 INTRODUCTION. i This study deals with architectuaral concepts, almost forgotten in the west as well as in the "westernised" east.^ The subject selected for investigation is purely eastern in origin; the "free-standing thupa (Sanskrit, stupa) of Anuradhapura period (3rd century B.C. to 10th century A.D.) of Sri Lanka was chosen as the basis of the study. The thupa was the most predominent edifice among the religious architecture of that period. / Sri Lanka was inhabited by North-Indian settlers around the 4th century B.C. By 3rd century B.C. the thupa was introduced to the island in association with the introduction of the Word of the Buddha. It is being suggested that the early examples of the thupa were built in the image of their Indian prototypes of Sanci and Bharhut. Today, none of the Sri Lahkan thupas retain the shape given to them by their original builders due to restorations, renovations and enlargements which took place time and again in the history of Sri Lanka. However, an indication of their original shapes could be obtained from the incidental references preserved in ancient chronicles such as Mahavamsa, Thupavamsa, Culavamsa etc. It appears that the s'itpa sastras used in the island in connection with the building of thupas were purely Indian in origin. The word thupa, generally designates a solid hemispherical dome arising 1. Rene Guenon, Crtsts of the Modern Wortd, Chapter VIII, especially p. 98. from a circular or square platform, surmounted by a square railing or a cube with an 'umbrella' (ehattra) or a conical spire on top. There were two types of thupas at Anuradhapura, namely, the "enclosed" thupa and the 'free-standing' thupa. As the name suggests, the enclosed thupa, or the cetiya ghara had a structure, possibly of timber, covering the entire edifice. Thupas such as Thuparama and Ambasthala at Anuradhapura belong to this category, and they had either 3 or more concentric rows of monolithic stone pillars (to support the roof) around the thupa proper. There were very few eetiya-ghavas existing at Anura­ dhapura. The remaining thupas at Anuradhapura were 'free-standing', in the sense that they did not have a structure covering the edifice. This study is restricted to the investigation of the 'free-standing' thupa . Volumes have been written on the subject of the Sri Lankan thupa, attempting mostly to investigate the edifice from a purely "quantita­ tive" aspect. In other words, the investigations are based on quantita­ tive measure and historical data. This study, on the other hand, attempts to view the thupa from a "qualitative" point of view based on the teaching of the Buddha, which is the essential source, indeed the ideal form of the Buddhist thupa . It may well be said that what is dealt with in the following pages is an essential a summary of the Theravada Buddhist doctrine in the archi­ tecture of the thupa. However strange and remote it may sound, a proper and a serious 2 investigation into "traditional" architecture, (to which the free- 2. See Rene Guenon, Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times, essay standing thupa belongs) whether Judeo-Christian, Islamic, Brahmanical or Buddhist, cannot be undertaken without a serious study and reference to the relevant doctrine. The doctrine is the "store house" of "intangible truths" (avyakata saoca) and traditional architecture, in its proper meaning, is purely a "tangible three-dimensional execution" 3 of that Truth. In other words, traditional architecture is the "means" (upaya) employed by ancient architects (silpin, sthapati) to educate or remind (re-mind) the "ordinary ignorant men" (alpa-buddhi— jana3 putujjana) of a truth. The term "Truth" may have many facets of meaning, especially in this confused environment of the modern world. What is dealt with here as "Truth" is not the law arising from "statistical probability" but That which is "timeless" (akalika), "limitless" (apramana, ananta) and That which retains Its "quality", "essence" (bhava) irrespective of the colour one may wishes to render It. ,4 The free-standing thupa of Anuradhapura period of Sri Lanka, the central theme of this study, is essentially Buddhist. That is to say that the "form" (idea) of the thupa crystallised in the soil of Sri Lanka with the introduction of the doctrine of the Buddha, and the Sri Lankan thupa could not have existed, in the form that we know of on Tradition and Traditionalism, pp. 249 - 257. 3. "According to visnu dharmottara-puranam and matsayapuranam the gods give men artha3 dharma3 kama and moksa. The men should worship the gods who give moksa. To worship one must have images. But for the early Buddhists the symbol served the purpose. To the worshipper it served the same purpose of portraying their gods. Thus the making of sculpture was not for one's own enjoyment but to meet the requirements of the worshippers. It was not 'art for art sake' but, they looked for a vehicle for their art, which was supplied by the religion", Bose, Phanandra Nath, Principles of Indian £ilpasastra, pp. 16 - 17. 4. See below pp. 37ff. iv it today, in the absence of the doctrine of the Buddha. The ancient Sri Lahkan kings patronised the building of numerous thupas of gigantic proportions diverting the much needed manpower, finance and time; this indicates that the thupa played an important role in the wellbeing of the social structure based on the teaching of the Buddha. It could hardly be argued that the thupas fulfilled a utilitarian function. The function of the thupa is purely spiritual, its mode of operation symbolic. A symbol is a "pointer", an indicator to remind us of the Truth. It is employed when all discursive means of expression fail to convey the intended qualities of the Truth. Generally, such Truth is considered to be inexpressible, intangible, incomprehensible, immeasurable, or in other words, metaphysical because It transcends all physical modes of expression.^ The intention of a symbol could be comprehended by considering an 6 analogy. Conceive two lines parallel to each other; the lower of the two representing the "tangible symbol" and the upper one, the "intangible Truth". The lower line has on it the corresponding analogical points of the upper one; that is to say that the lower of the two lines, so to speak, is a "reflection" (prati-bimba) of the upper, and that any point of the lower line, by reflection, corresponds to an analogical point of the upper. With our eyes we "see" the lower of the two lines, the symbol. On the other hand, the eyes (aksb) fail to 'see' the upper line, that is, what the symbol analogically represents (re-presents), since the symbol (the lower line), by nature, 'covers' or 'obscures' 5. See appendix pp. |52ff. 6. Parallel lines, by definition, never "meet", unless by analogical transposition of one, on the other. V the vision of the referent. It is when one 'sees' through the "third eye", the intellect (buddh'i) that the symbol reveals or yields to the spectator what is "above" it. The free-standing thupa, as a symbol, "crystallises" the Doctrine of 7 the Buddha. To reveal what is being "crystallised" or "frozen" in its "shape", then, the symbol has to be penetrated from the "inside" by the intellect to perceive what lies 'behind', 'above' or 'within' its appearance. In other words, the "shape" of the thupa to be properly understood and in a way that a symbol ought to be understood, it should be viewed with respect to its "form". The "shape" (rupa), the "quantity" is, then, the vehicle in which the "form" (riama), the "quality" dwells. To use a different terminology the shape is the "substance" in which the form, the "essence" manifests. Then, it may be said that the interaction of these two principles, "form" and "shape" (nctma and rupa, Essence and Substance) brings the edifice, so to speak, into "play" (Iz-la) , into "life" (jtva). Thus, on the one hand, the thupa crystallises and contains the Doctrine of the Buddha, and on the other hand, it radiates and expresses what it contains. The design of the Sri Lankan free-standing thupa was based on the repetitive inter-play of two geometric shapes, the circle and the square and their three-dimensional equivalents, the sphere and the cube.

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