ABSTRACT
Amaravati: the dismembering of the mahacaitya (1797-1886)
Upinder Singh
Amaravati (in modern Andhra Pradesh) was a major Buddhist centre of ancient India. The origins of this stupa-monastery complex go back to the Mauryan period, and it continued to be occupied till the fourteenth century A.D. Once abandoned, the structures became gradually cocooned and concealed in layers of dust and debris. Then, towards the end of the eighteenth century, the lost mahacaitya of Amaravati was discovered by a local zamindar.
This paper uses archival and published sources to reconstruct an important part of the modern history of ancient Amaravati. It opens with an account of the first documentation of the site by Colonel Colin Mackenzie in the eighteenth century and takes the story up to 1886. In a period dominated by amateur archaeologists and the absence of a coherent official policy regarding ancient monuments, much hinged on the ideas and initiatives of individuals such as Colin Mackenzie, Walter Elliot, Robert Sewell, J.G. Horsfall, H.H. Cole, and James Burgess. The paper details the process whereby the series of explorations and excavations at Amaravati during this period led to a steady dismembering of the mahacaitya, and a simultaneous effort of scholars to reconstruct its disappearing design.