Beginning in the first century bce, there is clear evidence that the sangha was manipulating the shape of primary stupas in the Western Ghats to make them appear taller and more massive than they really were (Fogelin 2012). In the process, the sangha significantly altered the semiotic significance of stupas and, perhaps, some of the foundation of Buddhist theology. These changes can be seen in subtle alterations to the shape of the anda. Unfortunately, this type of analysis can only be done in the monasteries of the Western Ghats. The reason for this is simple. Whereas the well-preserved chaityas of the Western Ghats contain almost wholly intact stupas, elsewhere in India stupas are heavily damaged. The subtle differences analyzed here cannot be seen on damaged andas.
While there is some variation in the form of monastic stupas in the Western Ghats, they were usually simpler than the contemporary pilgrimage stupas. Monastic stupas typically consisted of three parts, one or two drums, the anda, and a chhatra (see Figures 4.13). While monastic chaitya halls did have circumambulatory paths, the sangha situated them along the perimeter of the worship halls rather than immediately adjacent to the anda. In some cases, the sangha had railings carved in low relief on the upper portion of the drums, but overall, circumambulatory paths were not part of the visual assemblage of signs in monastic contexts. In contrast to the stability of the design of pilgrimage stupas, monastic stupas’ material forms and associated significations changed substantially between the first century BCE and the second century CE.
As discussed in Chapter 2, archaeologists have long recognized that people often use elevation to assert power (Moore 1996). A ruler, for example, could seat himself or herself higher than the commoners who came to petition him or her. From a practice theory perspective, this material action helped create the power differential that existed between the ruler and the ruled. From a semiotic perspective, the elevation of the ruler was an index of his or her greater power. From either perspective, the design and construction of a royal hall reinforced the ideology that the ruler was attempting to promote. More broadly, throughout history rulers often attempted to build the largest and most elaborate structures to signify and create their own power. In this light, the enormous religious structures of history have been regularly interpreted by archaeologists as statements of power—glorifying both the gods enshrined within them and the rulers who controlled and built these structures (Moore 1996). These large structures, however, were often expensive and labor intensive. Rulers and the builders they employed often used tricks to make structures appear larger and more lavish without additional cost or labor. Pyramids, for example, could be placed on or completely encasing a small hill. By employing topography in this way, the same labor investment resulted in a larger structure. In the New World, sunken courts were often excavated directly in front of pyramids. By lowering the position from which pyramids were viewed, the pyramids appeared larger (Moore 1996). In both of these cases, the builders altered the perception of elevation in a simple and direct way. The structures, from the point of view of the audience, were genuinely, measurably taller.
There are, however, other manipulations to the form of structures that can make them appear taller or larger, without actually changing their measurable height or size in any significant way—manipulations that play off the expectations of semiotic objects within the minds of inter-pretants. These subtle manipulations of material objects are particularly useful when materializing power in the interior of a structure. Interior spaces can only be made so large before the roof collapses. Where room dimensions limit the physical height and mass of a material object placed within it—such as a stupa within a chaitya hall—visual tricks that make material objects appear taller and/or more massive can be employed.
While there are many different physical techniques to subtly alter the sensual perception of a material object, here I will discuss only two. I call these “attenuation” and “implied mass” (see Figure 4.12). Attenuation makes an object appear taller by making it thinner. This can be most
Figure 4.12: Attenuation and implied mass
Clearly seen in depictions of the human body. In some African art, for example, the human form is severely attenuated to make figures appear very tall. Attenuation works in this case because all interpretants have pre-existing expectations of the proper proportions of the human body through regular viewing of bodies around them. An image cannot be relatively narrower if there is nothing to relate the image to. Attenuation, therefore, can only be employed in depictions of signs that are ubiquitous and standardized. While the human body is among the most ubiquitous signs, many other signs can also be examined in terms of attenuation. Here, I examine the attenuation of monastic stupas. Following the logic of attenuation, monastic stupas were only attenuated in comparison to contemporary pilgrimage stupas. The only reason that attenuation was successful in monastic stupas was that most interpretants viewed stupas with pre-existing knowledge of the proportions of pilgrimage stupas. This pre-existing image of an object roughly corresponds with Peirce’s definition of an object—that is, the mental object that an interpretant creates when thinking of a sign.
Implied mass relies on many of the same assumptions as attenuation. The main difference is that rather than making a sign appear taller, implied mass alters the shape of a material object to suggest mass that is not present. Using the form of a human body again, when depicting part of a person (e. g., a person standing behind a low wall), the interpretant imagines (semiotic object) the rest of the body. The mass of that imagined portion of the body is added to the mass of the visible portion. In monastic stupas, the sangha implied additional mass by lifting the midpoint of the anda above the plain of the drum (see Figure 4.12). The interpretant imagined the remainder of the anda within the drum, much as he or she might have imagined the bottom side of a ball floating in water. In effect, the anda was perceived to include both the visible mass as well as the mass of the semiotic object concealed within the drum. Like attenuation, implied mass relies on a strong familiarity with the sign being depicted. When encountering a novel or irregular shape, a shape for which there is no pre-existing semiotic object, the interpretant cannot fill in what is lacking.
Together, attenuation and implied mass can be used to understand the physical metamorphosis of early monastic stupas in the Western Ghats from the first century bce through the second century GE. Relying on elevations by Fergusson and Burgess ([1880] 1988), Nagaraju (1981), and Mitra (1971), I made careful measurements of the fifteen best-preserved stupas located within the largest chaityas in the Western Ghats (see Table 4.1). Based upon Dehejia’s (1972) chronology of these sites, the sangha had these chaityas carved between 100 bce and 140 ce. Of the fifteen stupas I examined, seven are attenuated, while ten are forms with implied mass (see Table 4.1). One important point is that these two techniques are not mutually exclusive. The stupas in Ajanta 9 and Karle 8 exhibit both attenuation and implied mass. In general, attenuated forms dominate in the earliest phase, with implied mass used to the exclusion of attenuation in later times.
World History
