What do the railing and the gateway inscriptions of the Amaravati stupa tell us about?
These inscriptions give us the names of the many people who gave the money for this stupa-monastery complex to be built. These included whole villages, landowners, craftsmen, traders, and members of royal families. It is interesting to note that a lot of the gifts to the stupa were made women. The Amaravati stupa must have been a magnificent site in ancient times, when monks lived and studied here. Many people came here to pray or worship, sometimes traveling long distances from different parts of the country. If you visit some ancient stupa sites like Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh you can get an idea of what the place must have been like in the olden days. But you visit Amaravati today, you will be disappointed. The reason for this is that over the years after this site was discovered in the 18th century, most of the beautiful carved stones of the Amaravati stupa steadily disappeared from the site. Some of the stones were used up in the making of newer buildings. But as more and more beaut
