[Photo.34/(012)] Amaravati (no. 69)

 Photograph of excavated sculpture piece. The reference number allocated to the piece refers to Robert Sewell’s ‘Report on the Amaravati Tope, and Excavations on its site in 1877’ (London, 1880) in which the piece is described.

‘Two more stones (68, 69) were next found, amongst the earth at the southern clearance…No. 69. (Diamater 2 ft. 9 in.). A disc of the Outer Rail. In this instance the disc is sculptured with a figure group. It therefore would be placed by Mr Fergusson as the central disc of the three between the pillars. The back has been split off. It was probably carved with the usual lotus ornament. The sculptured design is one which I cannot identify. It represents a forest or side of a rocky hill, filled with wild animals. There is a pond in the foreground at the base of the design, represented, as usual, by flowers growing in it. Round this are several elephants, one of whom is drinking. He has filled his trunk with water, and is discharging the contents into his mouth. Other elephants, old and young, are shewn amongst the rocks, with a deer, a wild boar, some birds, and two tigers. At the back, i.e., quite at the top of the sculpture, is a man carrying two loads by a stick slung over his shoulder. I have had this photographed.’

Robert Sewell
‘Report on the Amaravati Tope, and excavations on its site in 1877’ (London, 1880, pp. 50-51)

Faded print. Original negative not held. Part of a collection of twenty albumen prints mounted on card, with captions written in ink beneath the prints and all signed ‘R. Sewell’.