Nagarjunakonda: Monasteries and Their School Affiliations

Narrative representations have not been found in all Buddhist monasteries. In some areas, for instance in the region of modern Sannati in ancient Āndhradeśa, only one stūpa, known today as Kanaganahalli, was decorated with opulent narrative reliefs, while the others display none at all. It appears that some Buddhist schools were interested in narrative representations while others were not. The area now known as Nagarjunakonda – the historical Vijayapurī of the Ikṣvāku dynasty in the 3rd century ce – offers the best opportunity to investigate which monasteries the narrative reliefs came from. Among the approximately 40 Buddhist complexes that have been excavated, some of which actually name the schools the resident monks belonged to, and which were built following different layouts, all narrative reliefs were discovered in only a few of the complexes. All of these complexes show a very similar layout with a stūpa outside the monks’ cells, which are positioned in a U-shape, and two apsidal temples facing each other. One of these complexes gives the name of the related school as Aparamahāvinaśaila. It seems that this school was one of those interested in narrative representations, while all the others mentioned in inscriptions at Nagarjunakonda (Theravādins, Mahīśāsakas, and Bahuśrutīyas) were not.