Bharhut

• 1. Introduction

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  Bharhut is a village in the Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, in central India, and it holds one of the most unusual monuments in the entire story of early Buddhism. Scattered across its stone railings and gateway are more than two hundred inscriptions, carved directly into the panels in Brahmi script, labelling exactly what each scene depicts. Most ancient art asks you to guess. Bharhut tells you.

  The stupa at Bharhut is among the earliest surviving examples of Indian and Buddhist art. Its railings date to roughly 125-100 BCE, its great gateway a generation later at 100-75 BCE. Yet by the time Alexander Cunningham arrived in 1873, little remained standing. What had survived the centuries was being quietly dismantled by local villagers and repurposed as building material.

  Who built this place, and why did craftsmen from as far away as Gandhara carve mason's marks in a foreign script on its stonework? What do the panels actually show, and what became of the sculptures after Cunningham's expedition? The answers stretch from the reign of Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE to a shipwreck off northeastern Sri Lanka that was lost for more than a hundred years.

• 2. Dating and Origins

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  Pinning down exactly when Bharhut was built has kept scholars arguing for well over a century. The railings are dated by recent authors to circa 125-100 BCE, clearly after Sanchi Stupa No. 2, which began around 115 BCE. The torana gateway came slightly later, placed at 100-75 BCE on artistic grounds.

  The stupa itself may have been first built by the Maurya king Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE, but the gateway and railings were apparently added during the Shunga period, with many reliefs from the 2nd century BCE. Historian Ajit Kumar argues for a later date altogether, placing Bharhut in the 1st century CE, drawing comparisons with datable sculptures from the Art of Mathura, particularly those inscribed in the name of ruler Sodasa.

  The debate hinges partly on a single epigraph on a pillar of the gateway. It says the structure was made "during the rule of the Sugas" by Vatsiputra Dhanabhuti. The phrase "Suganam Raje" might mean the Shungas, or it might refer to the Sughanas, a northern Buddhist kingdom. No other use of the name "Shunga" has been found in the entire epigraphical record of India.

  King Dhanabhuti himself poses a puzzle. Since the Shungas were known as Hindu monarchs, a major Buddhist patron making dedications in their name was probably not a Shunga himself. He may have been a tributary ruler, or the head of a neighbouring territory such as Kosala or Panchala. His name does not appear on any Shunga regnal list.

• 3. Builders from Near and Far

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  Seven Kharosthi mason's marks have been recorded on the Bharhut gateway, and their presence is striking. Kharosthi was the script of Gandhara, a territory that was at the time a core region of the Indo-Greek kingdom in the northwest. The craftsmen who inscribed these marks almost certainly brought Hellenistic techniques with them.

  Cunningham drew a sharp distinction between gateway and railings. The gateway, artistically more refined, carried only Kharosthi marks. The railings, built by local craftsmen, carried 27 marks in the local Brahmi script. On the gateway alone, five of the Kharosthi marks were clustered at the base of the balustrade columns between the architraves.

  The Hellenistic influence shows in specific decorative choices: the fluted bell, the addorsed capital of the Persepolitan order, and the repeated use of the flame palmette or honeysuckle motif. Some authors have also pointed to similarities in the structure as a whole. Yet for all of this outside influence, the gateway retains a strongly Indian character in its overall form.

  A pillar capital dated to the 2nd century BCE combines a recumbent animal in the style of the Pillars of Ashoka with a central anta capital carrying Hellenistic rosettes and beads-and-reels, alongside a palmette design comparable to the Pataliputra capital. The fusion is deliberate and visible in the stone itself.

• 4. What the Panels Show

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  In conformity with the early aniconic phase of Buddhist art, the Buddha at Bharhut is never shown as a human figure. His presence is conveyed through symbols: a Dharma wheel, a Bodhi tree, an empty seat, footprints, or the triratana. One inscribed relief carries the words "Bhagavato Sakamuni Bodhi," meaning "The Bodhi Tree of the divine Shakyamuni," confirming the meaning directly.

  The railings are almost entirely covered in narrative reliefs. Eighty-two inscriptions serve as labels for panels depicting Jataka tales, events from the life of the historical Buddha, former Manushi Buddhas, and figures of Yakshas and Yakshinis. One hundred and thirty-six further inscriptions name the donors, drawing people from Vidisha, Pataliputra in Bihar, Karhad in Maharashtra, Kosambi in Uttar Pradesh, and Nasik in Maharashtra, among other places.

  A carving of Maya's Dream shows the moment of the Buddha's conception, with the sleeping queen surrounded by three attendants, a water-pot at her bedside, and an incense-burner at the foot of the bed. The story was known beyond India: Archelaus of Carrhae mentioned it in 278 CE, and Saint Jerome narrated the tradition of the Buddha's virgin birth in 340 CE.

  The Jetavana Monastery relief carries a full inscription naming the builder Anathapindika, and the scene itself is detailed enough to show a bullock cart with the yoke tilted up to signal it has been unloaded, and two figures counting out gold coins brought as payment for the garden. A Bharhut Yavana, identified as a Greek warrior by his short curly hair, Greek royal headband, tunic, boots, and a grape plant held in his right hand, has been given the role of dvarapala, guardian of a temple gate. The sheath of his broadsword is decorated with the nandipada, a Buddhist symbol.

• 5. Excavation and Dispersal

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  Alexander Cunningham visited Bharhut in 1873 and returned the following year to excavate the site. His assistant, Joseph David Beglar, continued the work and documented it through numerous photographs. Beglar also photographed a 10th-century Buddhist Sanskrit inscription, about which nothing is now known.

  The ruined stupa foundations remain at Bharhut, but the gateways and railings were dismantled and reassembled at the Indian Museum in Kolkata. Two panels found a different home: they are now at the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington. A pre-Devanagari inscription, from the time of King Balaldev, was found on Bharhut mountain some years after Cunningham's excavation.

  The story of how some of the sculptures left the country ends in unexpected disaster. The pieces were being transported toward London for an exhibition aboard the SS Indus, sailing from Calcutta to London via Colombo, Sri Lanka. In 1885 the ship ran aground near the town of Mullaitivu in northeastern Sri Lanka. The wreck was lost for more than a hundred years before being rediscovered in 2014.

• 6. A Thousand Years of Buddhism

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  The 2nd century BCE carvings are what made Bharhut famous, but the site did not fall silent after them. A small Buddhist temple was enlarged around 1100 CE, and a new statue of the Buddha was installed. A large Sanskrit inscription from that same period was found at the site but appears to have since been lost. This is distinct from the Lal Pahad inscription of 1158 CE, which mentions the Kalachuri kings.

  A Buddha sculpture datable to the 11th or 12th century was recovered alongside the medieval Sanskrit inscription, evidence of a vihara structure that was still functioning. The colossal statue and several smaller Buddhist figures found there cannot be dated much earlier than 1000 CE. A reasonable estimate, in the words of those who have studied the site, is that Buddhist religious practice may have continued for nearly fifteen centuries with little or perhaps no interruption.

  In the broader region around Bharhut and Sanchi, several minor stupas and Buddhist statues have been discovered at sites including Banshipur village in Damoh, Madighat in Rewa district, and Deur Kothar in Rewa, all dating up to the 12th century CE. Buddhism across this region declined sharply after the 9th and 10th centuries, and the monuments of Bharhut were ultimately destroyed, with most of the remains used by local villagers as building material. The eastern gateway, the only one of four original gateways to survive, now stands reassembled in Kolkata, still carrying those seven Kharosthi mason's marks that record the presence of craftsmen who travelled from Gandhara more than two thousand years ago.