India: Amaravati

Figures, buildings and symbols spread across pale limestone panels in the Amaravati gallery. These reliefs once decorated the outside of a Buddhist stupa in present-day Andhra Pradesh in India. The sacred monument gave the carvings an architectural setting around which people could walk. Scenes connected with the Buddha’s life shared that setting with Buddhist symbols and inscriptions recording donors. Looking at a relief involves following the carving across its surface, then considering where that panel belonged on the stupa. The surviving pieces in London formed part of a much larger monument. The sculpture’s arrangement around the shrine mattered to its viewers. A person walking around it encountered one panel after another. Here you can pause over a single scene, noticing how the carver placed figures and architecture within the same piece of stone.