Sanchi
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How it came to be
The Buddhist monuments on a hill at Sanchi, about 40 km from Bhopal in central India, began with the Mauryan emperor Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE. He raised a brick hemisphere over relics of the Buddha and set up a stone pillar. Ashoka's wife Devi came from nearby Vidisha.
Under the Shunga dynasty the stupa was enlarged, faced with stone and ringed with railings. Between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE, under the Satavahanas, four gateways were added. An inscription on the southern gateway reads: the ivory-workers from Vidisha have done the carving.
Gupta rulers added shrines in the 5th century, and Sanchi remained a Buddhist centre until about the 12th century. It was then abandoned for some 600 years before pilgrims returned. The site also held relics of Sariputra and Maudgalyayana, two chief disciples of the Buddha. It was inscribed in 1989.
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