Buddhist Stupa art - folk motifs and narratives

Early Buddhist Stupa art, while depicting folk motifs and narratives successfully expounds Buddhist ideals. Elucidate. (200 words, 12 M)
The stupa represents the Buddha, the path to enlightenment, a mountain and the universe all at the same time. The stupa ('stupa' in Sanskrit is used for heap) is an important form of Buddhist architecture, though it predates Buddhism.

In Buddhism, the earliest stupas contained portions of the Buddha's ashes, and as a result, the stupa began to be associated with the body of Buddha. It was believed that adding the Buddha's ashes to the mound of dirt activated it with the energy of the Buddha himself.

Early stupa art expounded Buddhist ideals in the following manner

• Stupas as Buddha:

           The domed shape of the stupa came to represent a person seated in meditation such as the Buddha was when he achieved enlightenment and knowledge of the Four Noble Truths.

The base of the stupa represents his crossed legs as he sat in a meditative pose (called padmasana or the lotus position).

The middle portion is the Buddha's body and the top of the mound, where a pole rises from the apex surrounded by a small fence, represents his head.

Before images of the human Buddha were created, reliefs often depicted practitioners demonstrating devotion to a stupa.

• Symbolism in Stupas:

             Buddha, in one of his early sutras, had instructed that his ashes were to be buried in a stupa at the crossing of the mythical four great roads (the four directions of space), the unmoving hub of the wheel, the place of enlightenment.

If one thinks of the stupa as a circle or wheel, the unmoving centre symbolises Enlightenment. Likewise, the practitioner achieves stillness and peace when the Buddhist dharma is fully understood.

Many stupas are placed on a square base, and the four sides represent the four directions, North, South, East and West. Each side often has a gate in the centre, which allows the practitioner to enter from any side.

The gates are called torana. Each gate also represents the four great life events of the Buddha: East (Buddha's birth), South (Enlightenment), West (First Sermon where he preached his teachings or dharma), and North (Nirvana).

The gates are turned at right angles to the axis mundi to indicate movement in the manner of the arms of a svastilza, a directional symbol that, in Sanskrit, means 'to be good'.

The torana are directional gates guiding the practitioner in the correct direction on the correct path to enlightenment, the understanding of the Four Noble Truths.

• Pradakshina Path and Parikrama:

            Parikrama suggests the endless cycle of rebirth (samsara) and the spokes of the Eightfold Path that leads to knowledge of the Four Noble Truths and into the centre of the unmoving hub of the wheel, enlightenment. This walking meditation at a stupa's Pradakshina path enables the practitioner to visualise enlightenment as the movement from the perimeter of the stupa to the unmoving Hub at the centre marked by the yasti.

The Analogy with the Symbolism of the Stupa:

             The Seed of Highest Enlightenment, also depicted as a Tongue of Flame (Bindu) to be realized above the double symbol crowning Chorten.

• The double symbol (Surya Chandra) of Sun and Rising Moon is an emblem of the Twin-unity of the Absolute Truth (of the sphere beyond normal comprehension) and the Relative Truth (of the worldly sphere).
• The stylized Parasol (Chattra) symbolically giving protection from all evil.
• The thirteen Steps of Enlightenment, i.e. the first ten Steps of Enlightenment (Dasha-Bhumi) and the three higher levels of supraconsciousness (Avenika-smrityupashthana).
• The dome, corresponding to the primeval mound, as Receptacle of Relics or offerings (Dhatu-Garbha); the dome-line edifices of Old Indian Stupas were also called egg or water-bubble (Budbuda).
• The base (Parishada) is square and four-stepped, its sides 

The practice of building stupas spread with the Buddhist doctrine to Nepal and Tibet, Bhutan, Thailand, Burma, China and even the United States where large Buddhist communities are centered. While stupas have changed in form over the years, their function remains essentially unchanged. Stupas remind the Buddhist practitioner of the Buddha and his teachings almost 2500 years after his death.