Travel to Peninsular India: Sanchi: Photo 4

The glories of the stupa are its four toranas, or gateways.  These were added late in the first century B.C., when Sanchi had fallen to the Andhra or Satavahana kings.  The four are cardinally oriented and all generally similar, with triple architraves.  They're also profusely ornamented. The ornament you see on your left as you enter here can be described as the front side of the east pillar of the north gateway.  So it was described by John Marshall and Alfred Foucher in their massive three-volume Monuments of Sanchi, published in 1940.  In general, the ornamentation is more complex on the front sides of the architraves and pillars, where narratives are recorded.  In this case, the top two architraves identify the seven Buddhas of this eon (manushi Buddhas); that's the recurrent theme of all the top-front architraves.  The bottom architrave illustrates the Vessantara jataka, a story of a bodhisattva banished for his generosity. The rear sides tend, with exceptions, to be more purely decorative.

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