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Stupa of Sanchi

An assured history of two millenniums of accomplished sculptural creation is a rare and significant fact in the life of a people.

This greatness and continuity of Indian sculpture is due to the close connection between the religious and philosophical and the aesthetic mind of the people. Its survival into times not far from us was possible because of the survival of the cast of the antique mind in that philosophy and religion, a mind familiar with eternal things, capable of cosmic vision, having its roots of thought and seeing in the profundities of the soul, in the most intimate, pregnant and abiding experiences of the human spirit.

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Stupa of Sanchi, northern gateway with balustrade around the upper pradaksina or circumambulatory path, overlooking a wide landscape. Satavahana dynasty, 2^nd-1^st century BC. Photograph by Elizabeth Beck.