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Amravati

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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or Amaravati, a ruined city of India in the Guntur district of the Madras presidency, on the south bank of the Kistna river, 62 m. from its mouth. The town is of great interest for the antiquary as one of the chief centres of the Buddhist kingdom of Vengi, and for its stupa (sepulchral monument). Amravati has been identified with Hsiian Tsang's To-na-kie-tse-kia and with the Rahmi of Arab geographers. Subsequent to the disappearance of Buddhism from this region the town became a centre of the Sivaite faith. When Hsiian Tsang visited Amravati in A.D. 639 it had already been deserted for a century, but he speaks in glowing terms of its magnificence and beauty. Very careful and artistic representations of the stupa with its daghoba and interesting rail, pillars and sculptures will be found in Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship, and in his History of Indian Architecture (1876). Its elaborate carvings illustrate the life of Buddha. Some are preserved in the British Museum; others in the museum at Madras.

An account by Dr James Burgess was published in 1877 as one of the volumes of the Archaeological Survey of Southern India.