imported>Saprativadhikary at 18:55, 9 April 2026

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{{Short description|Series of sculptures in the British Museum}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}}
{{Infobox artifact
| name = Amaravati Collection
| image = [[File:BrMus Amravati.jpg|350px]]
| image_caption = The sculptures as displayed in the British Museum.
| material = Limestone
| size =
| writing =
| created = 1st century BCE to 8th century CE
| discovered_place = [[Amaravathi Mahachaitya]]
| discovered_coords =
| discovered_date =1797
| discovered_by =
| location = [[British Museum]], London
| id =
}}
The '''Amaravati Collection''', sometimes called the '''Amaravati Marbles''', is a series of 120 sculptures and inscriptions in the [[British Museum]] from the [[Amaravati Stupa]] in [[Amaravathi (village), Guntur district|Amaravathi, Guntur]] in the [[States and union territories of India|Indian state]] of [[Andhra Pradesh]]. They come from several different phases and rebuildings between the 1st century BCE and the 8th century CE of this important Buddhist site, the southernmost known grand pilgrimage [[stupa]] in India.

The London Amaravati artefacts entered the museum's collection in the 1880s. The Amaravati sculptures were sometimes also called the '''Elliot Marbles''' on account of their association in with [[Walter Elliot (naturalist)|Sir Walter Elliot]], who had them removed from the site to [[Madras]] in the 1840s. This was essentially a 19th-century term, in emulation of the [[Elgin Marbles]] and other Greco-Roman groupings, which was applied to the whole group taken to Madras by Elliot. Most of it is now in [[Chennai]] (Madras), supplemented by later finds. Nearly all of the smaller group now in London come from Elliot's group.

There are also large collections of Amaravati sculpture in the [[Government Museum, Chennai|Chennai Government Museum]], which has the best collection, and at the site museum at Amaravati, and smaller ones in other museums in India and around the world.
[[File:Amaravati_Marbles_(cropped).png|thumb|1858 photograph by Linnaeus Tripe]]

==Description==
{{main|Amaravati Stupa#Sculptures}}
[[File:British Museum Asia 14.jpg|thumb|Slab of the Great Stupa with a Buddha statue at the entrance]]
The Amaravati collection in the British Museum consists of over 120 different pieces made from a [[limestone]] called Palnad marble; although the material is certainly not marble and the source of the stone in the Palnad quarry not decisively proven.<ref name=indiatoday>{{cite news|last=Roy|first=Amit|title=Out of Amatavati|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/indiascope/story/19921231-british-museum-displays-masterpieces-of-buddhist-sculptures-from-amravati-767336-2012-12-21|access-date=21 December 2013|newspaper=IndiaToday|date=December 1992}}</ref>

Most of the figurative sculptures are in [[relief]], with many of the most crowded scenes illustrating stories from the [[Jataka tales]], a large body of literature with complex accounts of the previous lives of [[Buddha]]. The largest collection, in the [[Government Museum, Chennai]] (formerly Madras) has a larger number of similar sculptures in [[relief]], which they have classified by four periods of activity starting in the second century BCE and stretching to the second century CE. Early interest in the stupa and its sculptures was to some extent because it was wrongly thought to contain early evidence of [[Christianity in India]].<ref>[http://www.chennaimuseum.org/draft/gallery/01/02/buddh1.htm Buddhist Sculptures], Government Museum, Chennai, retrieved 21 December 2013</ref> More recent scholarship, notably by Akira Shimada (who made a close study of both collections), has tended to adopt slightly later dates.

The segments can be divided into [[Amaravati Stupa#Types of sculpture|a number of categories]], including parts of the stupa's railings and gateways, and "drum-slabs" from the stone facing of the mound of the stupa itself. They include pillars, crossbars and copings, drum-slabs, pillar fragments, two guardian [[lions]] and a number of miscellaneous pieces, some of which date from later periods. In total, they represent one of the most important collections of ancient Indian sculpture outside the [[Indian subcontinent|sub-continent]].

==Early history and documentation in India==
[[File:Amaravathi Triratna Symbols.jpg|thumb|Dome slab from the 2nd century stupa]]
After the first explorations of the site by [[Colin Mackenzie]], [[Walter Elliot (ICS)|Sir Walter Elliot]] of the Madras Civil Service undertook excavations at the Amaravati ''stūpa'' in 1845 and transported the excavated pieces to Madras, where they were placed on the greens in front of the college.<ref>Jennifer Howes, "Colin Mackenzie and the Stupa at Amaravati," ''South Asian Studies'' 18 (2002), pp. 53–65. See http://jenniferhowes.com/publications-podcasts-etc/articles--book-reviews.html</ref> After enquiries from the Court of Directors of the [[East India Company]], the stones were moved to a slightly less exposed site in front of the museum. In 1853, the curator of the museum, Dr [[Edward Balfour]] of the Madras Medical Service, informed London that the condition of the sculptures was deteriorating due to their situation and in order for the company to make a decision as to whether the stones were of sufficient artistic importance to merit transportation to London, Balfour arranged for a series of drawings to be made of the pieces by the Indian artist P. Murugasa Moodaliar in 1855. The drawings are preserved in the [[British Library]].<ref>See [[British Library]] Madras Government Collections, 2242–2283; http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/indiaofficeselectpd/BriefDisplay.aspx?SearchType=AlphabeticSearch&ListType=Artist&Value=3674.</ref> Although in general these drawings gave a good idea of the sculptures, Balfour was not entirely satisfied with their accuracy and therefore persuaded Dr A. J. Scott to take a series of photographs, which were also forwarded to London.

In 1858, [[Linnaeus Tripe]] made a further series of photographs of the sculptures in Chennai. A set is preserved in the British Library as ''Photographs of the Elliot Marbles; and other subjects; in the Central Museum Madras'' (Madras, 1858–1859) under shelfmark Photo 958.<ref name=bl>[http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/indiaofficeselect/PhotoShowDescs.asp?CollID=1736 Photos of the Elliot Marbles], Linnaeus Tripe, [[British Library]], retrieved 19 December 2013.</ref> In the following year, namely 1858, some of the Amaravati sculptures were shipped to London on the orders of the Court of Directors of the East India Company.

==Arrival in England==
In England, the Amaravati sculptures were destined for the museum of the East India Company. Known as the [[India Museum]], this institution was established in 1801 to house the natural history specimens, books, samples of manufactures, manuscripts and other miscellaneous items stolen by the company and its officers in India.<ref>Desmond, Ray. ''The India Museum, 1801–1879''. London: H.M.S.O., 1982.</ref> The Amaravati sculptures arrived just as the East India Company was being dissolved, so the sculptures were stored at Beale's Wharf in Southwark before being transferred to [[Fife House, Whitehall|Fife House in Whitehall]], a building once occupied by [[James Duff, 2nd Earl Fife]] (died 1809). The Indian collections in Fife House were opened to the public in July 1861.<ref>Michael Willis, "Sculpture from India," in ''A. W. Franks: Nineteenth-Century Collecting and the British Museum'', ed. Marjorie Cargill and John F. Cherry (London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Press, 1997), p. 256; available free online: https://www.academia.edu/2577137/Sculpture_from_India.</ref> Conditions at Fife House were less than ideal and the Amaravati pieces sustained some damage there due to weather conditions. This drew the attention of [[James Fergusson (architect)|James Fergusson]] (1808–1886), who had published a book on Amaravati in 1868 and appears to have expressed his concerns to [[Augustus Wollaston Franks]] at the British Museum.<ref>Michael Willis, "Sculpture from India," in ''A. W. Franks: Nineteenth-Century Collecting and the British Museum'', ed. Marjorie Cargill and John F. Cherry (London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Press, 1997), p. 256.</ref>

==Transfer to the British Museum in 1880==
[[File:P1050858 (5026013499).jpg|thumb|Slab with large scene]]
Although several proposals were put forward in the 1860s to transfer some of the India Museum collections to the British Museum, moves supported by [[Antonio Panizzi]], administrative complexities prevented a speedy decision. In addition, [[John Forbes Watson]] (1827–1892), in charge of the India Museum from 1858, was determined to preserve the organization and lobbied energetically for a new building and the creation of an 'Imperial Museum for India and the Colonies'.<ref>Michael Willis, "Sculpture from India," in ''A. W. Franks: Nineteenth-Century Collecting and the British Museum'', ed. Marjorie Cargill and John F. Cherry (London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Press, 1997), p. 257; for Watson, see http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/i/indian-textiles-and-empire-john-forbes-watson/</ref> After several failed proposals, the lease on Fife House expired in 1869 and the India Museum briefly rejoined the library in the newly created [[India Office]]. There was so little room that the Amaravati sculpture was sent to the India Office Stores in [[Lambeth]]. Some of the India Museum collections were slowly moved to the South Kensington Museum (forerunner of the [[Victoria and Albert Museum]]), where a three-year lease had been taken on some of the galleries there. This move coincided with the appointment of Dr [[George Birdwood]] as the curator at South Kensington. After debates in and out of the House of Commons, Sir Louis Mallet (1823–1890) asked Birdwood to prepare plans for the dispersal of the India Museum in 1879. The India Museum was then dissolved and the transfer of collections effected in 1880.<ref>Mallet was an authority on commercial policy and a supporter of free trade doctrine; in 1872 he was nominated to the Council of India; he was Permanent Under-Secretary of State for India from 1874 to 1883, for which see Michael Willis, "Sculpture from India," in ''A. W. Franks: Nineteenth-Century Collecting and the British Museum'', ed. Marjorie Cargill and John F. Cherry (London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Press, 1997), p. 261, note 39.</ref>

==Display of the Amaravati collection in the British Museum==
After the sculptures in London were deposited in the British Museum in 1880, for a long time they were arranged on the museum's main [[stairwell]] until they were removed for safekeeping during [[World War II]]. They re-emerged in the 1950s, but the atmospheric conditions in London at the time caused the sculptures to deteriorate. They were moved to an air-conditioned basement in 1959 where they remained for over thirty years until a special gallery could be constructed, which now displays some 70 objects.<ref name=indiatoday/>

In 1992, the British Museum's Sir [[Joseph Hotung]] Gallery (Room 33) was opened to feature antiquities from east Asia and south Asia. Adjacent to this gallery (Room 33a), the Amaravati collection is displayed in a special room with controlled humidity and air conditioning.<ref name=indiatoday/> The gallery includes a reconstructed section of the stupa railing and a selection of "drum slabs" that once decorated the exterior of the stupa proper.<ref name=hindu>{{cite news|title=History in stone|url=http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2002/01/28/stories/2002012800200300.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020214061154/http://hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2002/01/28/stories/2002012800200300.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 February 2002|access-date=22 December 2013|newspaper=[[The Hindu]]|date=28 January 2002}}</ref> The gallery was sponsored by the Japanese publishing concern [[Asahi Shimbun]] after whom the space is named.

==Catalogues and research==
[[File:AmaravatiFrieze.jpg|thumb|Frieze from Amaravati depicting the stupa.]]
The first detailed study of the Amaravati sculpture was published by [[James Fergusson (architect)|James Fergusson]] in 1868.<ref>James Fergusson, Tree and Serpent Worship, or Illustrations of Mythology and Art in India in the 1st and 4th Cent. a. Chr.: From the Sculptures of the Buddhist Topes at Sanchi and Amravati.; Prepared Under the Authority of the Secretary of State for India in Council; With Introductory Essays and Descriptions of the (100) Plates (London: India Museums, Allen, 1868). For a review in 1869 see: https://archive.org/details/jstor-3025152.</ref> Just under a century later, the first catalogue of the collection was prepared by Douglas E. Barrett, one time Keeper of Oriental Antiquities at the British Museum, and published by the museum in 1954.<ref>Douglas E. Barrett. ''Sculptures from Amaravati in the British Museum'' (London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1954). On Barrett's contribution, see John Guy, ''Indian Art & Connoisseurship: Essays in Honour of Douglas Barrett'' (Chidambaram Ahmedabad, India: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in association with Mapin Pub, 1995).</ref> This was followed by ''Amaravati: Buddhist Sculpture from the Great Stūpa'', published in 1992 to coincide with the opening of the [[Asahi Shimbun]] Gallery of Amaravati sculpture.<ref>Knox, Robert. ''Amaravati: Buddhist Sculpture from the Great Stupa'' (London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Press, 1992). As pointed out in Mary Stewart (1995), review of ''Amaravati. Buddhist sculpture from the Great Stupa'' ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'' (Third Series), 5, pp 145–146. doi:10.1017/S1356186300013870 the work is dependent on Barrett and deficient in terms of its knowledge of and relation to Buddhist studies and iconography.</ref> The early printed catalogues have been absorbed and surpassed by the British Museum's collections online database.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx|title = Collection}}</ref>

As the British Museum database emerged, work on the iconography of the early Buddhist art at Amaravati and [[Ajanta Caves|Ajanta]] was being advanced by Prof. Dr Monkia Zin.<ref>For example Zin, ''Mitleid und Wunderkraft. Schwierige Bekehrungen und ihre Ikonographie im indischen Buddhism's'' (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2006). For a full list of publications and links see, http://www.indologie.uni-muenchen.de/personen/2_professoren/zin/index.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208104233/http://www.indologie.uni-muenchen.de/personen/2_professoren/zin/index.html |date=8 December 2015 }}</ref> Meanwhile, the study of the site's history has been led by Dr Jennifer Howes, who has written articles on the subject and been involved in the online publication of Colin Mackenzie's Album.<ref>Howes, "Colin Mackenzie and the Stupa at Amaravati," ''South Asian Studies'' 18 (2002), pp. 53–65, and Howes, "A Colonial History of Sculptures from the Amaravati Stupa," in ''Buddhist Stupas in South Asia'', ed. J. Hawkes and A. Shimada (Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2009): pp. 20–39. For online links, see http://jenniferhowes.com/publications-podcasts-etc/my-books-articles--book.html</ref> A wider study of the site and its history was published by Akira Shimada in 2013.<ref>Akira Shimada, ''Early Buddhist Architecture in Context: The Great Stūpa at Amarāvatī (Ca. 300 BCE – 300 CE)'' (Lieden: Brill, 2013).</ref> This monograph provides a detailed re-evaluation of the site itself, the documents in the British Museum and British Library, and the history of early Buddhist art. Shimada's chronology has superseded earlier attempts to date the phases of Amaravati sculpture and places the stupa in its wider cultural and physical landscape.<ref>The book has been extensively reviewed: Claudine Bautze-Picron, ''Arts Asiatique'', 68 (2013), 158–159; Peter Johansen, ''Asian Perspectives'', 52-2 (2013), 368–371; Robert Brown, ''South Asian Studies'', 30 (2014), 278–279. Upinder Singh, ''The Book Reviews'', 39-6 (2015), 12–13.</ref>

In 2014, The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation supported a conference at the British Museum entitled ''Amaravati: The Art of an Early Buddhist Monument in Context'' at the British Museum.<ref>For a list of papers see: https://www.academia.edu/13646343/Amarāvatī_The_Art_of_an_Early_Buddhist_Monument_in_Context</ref>

Collaborative research into the Amaravati sculptures is ongoing through the [http://www.basas.org.uk/site/index.php/our_work/page/689aaf33-c326-4090-a60d-dc6950adffa5/ World Corpus of Amaravati Sculpture] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161023051904/http://www.basas.org.uk/site/index.php/our_work/page/689aaf33-c326-4090-a60d-dc6950adffa5/ |date=23 October 2016 }}, a project directed by Prof. Akira Shimada in collaboration with the Archaeological Survey of India. The aims of the project are to "facilitate access to the site’s sculpture and documentation, to encourage the interdisciplinary and international discussion of Amaravati and to promote new research and publication on Amaravati and Buddhist archaeology."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.basas.org.uk/site/index.php/our_work/page/689aaf33-c326-4090-a60d-dc6950adffa5/ |title=World Corpus of Amaravati Sculpture – Our work – British Association for South Asian Studies |website=www.basas.org.uk |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150912142438/http://www.basas.org.uk/site/index.php/our_work/page/689aaf33-c326-4090-a60d-dc6950adffa5/ |archive-date=2015-09-12}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
{{commons category}}
* Barrett, Douglas E. ''Studies in Indian Sculpture and Painting''. London: Pindar Press, 1990.
* ''Amaravati: The Art of an Early Buddhist Monument in Context'', Edited by Akira Shimada and Michael Willis, British Museum, 2016, [http://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/207_Amaravati.pdf PDF]
* Shimada, Akira. 2006. "The Great Railing at Amarāvatī: An Architectural and Chronological Reconstruction". ''Artibus Asiae''. 66, no. 1: 89–141.
* [[Wladimir Zwalf|Zwalf, Wladimir]]. ''Buddhism: Art and Faith''. London: British Museum Publications, 1985.

{{British Museum}}

[[Category:Asian sculptures in the British Museum]]
[[Category:Indian Buddhist sculpture]]
[[Category:Satavahana dynasty]]
[[Category:Stupas in India]]
[[Category:History of Amaravati]]
[[Category:Indian artefacts held abroad]]

Amaravati Marbles - Revision history

imported>Saprativadhikary at 18:55, 9 April 2026