The Guntupalle or Guntupalli Group of Buddhist Monuments is located near Kamavarapukota,

Eluru district Eluru district is a district in coastal Andhra Region in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. With Eluru as its administrative headquarters, it was proposed on 26 January 2022 to become one of the resultant twenty six districts in the state once ...

, in the state of

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. It is around 40 km away from

Eluru Eluru is a city and the district headquarters of Eluru district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is one of the 14 municipal corporations in the state and the mandal headquarters of Eluru mandal in the Eluru revenue division. The cit ...

. The rock-cut part of the site has two

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

caves, a

chaitya A chaitya, chaitya hall, chaitya-griha, (Sanskrit:''Caitya''; Pāli: ''Cetiya'') refers to a shrine, sanctuary, temple or prayer hall in Indian religions. The term is most common in Buddhism, where it refers to a space with a stupa and a rounded ...

hall and a large group of

stupa A stupa ( sa, स्तूप, lit=heap, ) is a mound-like or hemispherical structure containing relics (such as ''śarīra'' – typically the remains of Buddhist monks or nuns) that is used as a place of meditation. In Buddhism, circum ...

s. The chaitya hall has a rare carved stone entrance replicating wooden architecture, a simpler version of that at the Lomas Rishi Cave. There are remains of structural buildings in brick and stone, including remains of two vihara made of brick, as well as excavated caves at two levels, including an unusual structural

hall (that is, one built above ground). The core of this consists of the stone stupa with an enclosed path around it allowing ritual

parikrama Parikrama or Pradakshina is clockwise circumambulation of sacred entities, and the path along which this is performed, as practiced in the Indic religions - Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. In Buddhism, it refers only to the path a ...

(circumambulation). They mostly date to 200-0 BCE, with some sculptures added later. The main building above ground is in brick, around a stone

, with over 30 smaller stupas on a terrace in front of it. There are ruins of two other buildings.ASI; Michell, 368 During excavation, three

relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tangi ...

caskets were found. The caskets had many precious elements like gold, silver, crystal beads. The bronze image of Padmapani was found along with one of the caskets. The inscription on the casket was in the

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the ...

script which indicates the year as from the 9th to 10th century CE. File:Guntupalli cave.jpg, Guntupalli cave File:Stone built Stupa.JPG, The stupa inside its building File:Stone built Stupa and Large group of stupas 2.JPG, Stupa remains below the main stupa File:Large group of stupas.JPG, Stupas File:Guntupalli caves.jpg, Stupas File:Brick Chaitya.JPG

Notes

References

*"ASI"
Group of Buddhist Monuments, Guntupalli. ASI
*Michell, George, ''The Penguin Guide to the Monuments of India, Volume 1: Buddhist, Jain, Hindu'', 1989, Penguin Books, {{Portal, India Buildings and structures in Eluru district Archaeological sites in Andhra Pradesh Stupas in India Buddhist sites in Andhra Pradesh Buddhist caves in India Buddhist monasteries in India Indian rock-cut architecture Former populated places in India Buddhist pilgrimage sites in India Caves of Andhra Pradesh