Chula-Dhammagiri monastery

The Chula-Dhammagiri (“Lesser Dhammagiri”) monastery stood on a rocky hill about a furlong east of the Great Stupa at Nagarjunakonda.¹² The hill is now called Naharallabodu.¹² Its excavators thought it the most important group of monastic buildings in the valley.¹²

Its name comes from the inscription of Bodhisiri on the floor of one of its shrines.³ That record is dated in the 14th year of King Matharīputa (Virapurushadatta) of the Ikshvakus.³ It places her chaitya hall (shrine hall) at the monastery on the Lesser Dhammagiri, on the Sriparvata east of Vijayapuri.³

The hill

Longhurst described Naharallabodu as a long, narrow hill running roughly south to north.² It was about a quarter of a mile long and less than a hundred yards wide.² Its southern end was higher and broader.²

M. Hamid Kuraishi first dug there in 1926–27.⁴ He described two whaleback mounds by the path from the village to the Great Stupa, both locally called Nallarallabodu, “blackstone mound”.⁴ Each had the remains of a stupa (relic mound) and a monastery on top.⁴

On the northern mound he cleared an apsidal (round-ended) temple with a long three-line inscription on its floor.⁵⁶ Beside it stood a monastery about 93 feet square.⁵⁶ It had six cells on each side of an open court, a central platform and a granary.⁵⁶ He also traced an ancient road for about 150 feet up the hill’s north-western slope.⁵⁶

Bodhisiri’s shrine and monastery

Longhurst’s excavations of 1927–29 exposed two monastic groups.² On the main part of the hill stood two stupas, the apsidal temple with the inscription, and a large brick and plaster monastery with domestic buildings.² At the northern end were another stupa, a second apsidal brick temple and a small monastery.² This temple held a limestone Buddha over eight feet high.²

One stupa was built in the usual form of a wheel, with hub, spokes and rim in brick.⁷ Longhurst identified the stupa and monastery beside the inscribed temple as the chaitya and vihara (monastery) built for the monks from Sri Lanka.⁷

Monastery 1 and Chaitya 2

In his report for 1928–29 Longhurst gave the plans.⁸⁹ Monastery 1 had an open court 64 feet square, once paved with stone and probably holding a wooden pillared hall.⁸⁹ Around it were 24 cells, each about 8 feet square, some used as shrines, store-rooms and kitchens.⁸⁹

South of it stood the apsidal Chaitya 2, about 41½ by 18½ feet.⁸⁹ Its object of worship was a small stone stupa 5 feet across.⁸⁹ Its inscribed floor survived, though the walls stood only a few feet high.⁸⁹

Monastery 2

Monastery 2, at the lower end, was more compact.⁹ It had a stone-paved hall 40 feet square and cells and rooms on three sides.⁹ It also had two small apsidal shrines facing each other, and a yard with a refectory (dining hall), kitchen and store-rooms.⁹ Lead coins and broken Buddha images were found there.⁹ Its small Stupa 4 yielded a gold relic casket inside a silver one.⁹

Finds

In his memoir Longhurst added that the plan of Monastery 1 was somewhat irregular.¹⁰¹¹ He took this as a sign that its builders were not very expert.¹⁰¹¹ He also found a hoard of lead coins with an earthenware coin die in one of its cells.¹⁰¹¹ Among the finds from the hill was a life-size head wearing a draped cap.¹⁰ He thought it might be a portrait of a famous teacher of the monastery.¹⁰

Identification

Hirananda Sastri made an early summary of the inscription.⁷ It spoke of monks and nuns from Sri Lanka building a stupa and monastery on a hill called Siripavata.⁷ It also spoke of buildings on a hillock called Chuladhamagiri.⁷ Longhurst therefore suggested that the northern end of the hill was regarded as a separate site.⁷ He even wondered whether its smaller monastery had housed nuns.⁷ In his memoir he identified Naharallabodu itself as the Lesser Dhammagiri on Sriparvata.¹²

Vogel came to the same conclusion.¹³¹⁴ He noted that the inscribed shrine encloses a small stupa, has a stone floor and adjoins a monastery on the higher southern end of the hill, all as the inscription describes.¹³¹⁴ So he concluded that the town in the valley was Vijayapuri.¹³¹⁴

A fragmentary inscription found in the 1950s again names the monastery on the Chula-Dhammagiri east of Vijayapuri.¹⁵ It says the monastery was given to Buddhist teachers.¹⁵ Sircar noted the hill’s identification with Naharallabodu.¹⁵

Footnotes

1. J. Ph. Vogel, Prakrit Inscriptions from a Buddhist Site at Nagarjunikonda, Epigraphia Indica XX (1933), p. 3 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. A. H. Longhurst, “Excavations at Nagarjunikonda”, Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India 1927–28 (1931), p. 116 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰

3. Vogel, Prakrit Inscriptions from Nagarjunikonda (1933), p. 23, translation of inscription F (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. M. Hamid Kuraishi, “Trial Excavations at Alluru, Gummadidurru and Nagarjunikonda”, Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India 1926–27 (1930), p. 158 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Kuraishi, “Trial Excavations” (1930), p. 159 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. Kuraishi, “Trial Excavations” (1930), p. 160 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

7. Longhurst, “Excavations at Nagarjunikonda”, ASI Annual Report 1927–28 (1931), p. 117 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

8. A. H. Longhurst, “Excavations at Nagarjunikonda”, Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India 1928–29 (1933), p. 102 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

9. Longhurst, “Excavations at Nagarjunikonda”, ASI Annual Report 1928–29 (1933), p. 103 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

10. Longhurst, Buddhist Antiquities of Nagarjunakonda (1938), p. 9 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

11. Longhurst, Buddhist Antiquities of Nagarjunakonda (1938), p. 10 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

12. A. H. Longhurst, The Buddhist Antiquities of Nagarjunakonda (1938), p. 5 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩

13. J. Ph. Vogel, “Additional Prakrit Inscriptions from Nagarjunikonda”, Epigraphia Indica XXI (1931–32), p. 68 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

14. Vogel, “Additional Prakrit Inscriptions” (1931–32), p. 69 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³

15. D. C. Sircar, “Some Brahmi Inscriptions: B. Fragmentary Inscriptions from Nagarjunikonda”, Epigraphia Indica XXXIV (1961–62, publ. 1963), p. 212 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³