A glimpse of Sanchi

In the nineteenth century, Shahjehan Begum, the ruler of Bhopal, wrote a history that describes Alexander Cunningham examining the ruins at Sanchi, a great Buddhist site near Bhopal.

European visitors greatly admired Sanchi's carved gateways. The French, and then the English, wanted to carry off the eastern gateway to a museum in their own country. In the end, both were satisfied with carefully made plaster-cast copies, and the original stayed where it was.

The rulers of Bhopal, Shahjehan Begum and her successor Sultan Jehan Begum, gave money to preserve the site. Sultan Jehan Begum funded a museum and a guesthouse, and the publication of John Marshall's volumes on Sanchi.

So Sanchi escaped the fate of many other sites, which were destroyed or looted by railway contractors, builders, and collectors of antiquities.

Its survival raises questions: why was the great mound built? Why the stone railing around it? Who paid for it? And when was it discovered? Patrons, and some luck, saved Sanchi.