Sanchi is known for stupas, monasteries, temples and pillars dating from the 3 rd century BC to the 12th century AD. The most famous of these monuments, the Sanchi Stupa 1, was originally built by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka, the then governor of Ujjayini, whose wife Devi was the daughter of a merchant from adjacent Vidisha. Their son Mahindra and daughter Sanghamitra were born in Ujjayini and sent to sri Lanka, where they converted the king, the queen and their people to Buddhism.

The world-renowned stupas of stupa of Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh are being designated by UNESCO as the world heritage site for its archaeological andhistorical importance.

A Chunar sandstone pillar fragment, shining with the proverbial Mauryan polish, lies near Stupa 1 and carries the famous edict of Ashoka warning against schism in the Buddhist community. Stupa 1 was found empty , while relics of the two disciples of Buddha enshrined in the adjacent Stupa 3 were carried away to England. The nearby moern temple has a reliquary containing the remains of a Buddhist teacher from another stupa outside Sanchi.

The Sanchi hill goes up in shelves with Stuupa 2 situated on a lower shelf, while Stupa 1, Stupa3, the 5th century Gupta temple No. 17 and the 7th century temple No. 18 are on the intermediate shelf while a later monastery is on the crowning shelf. The balustrade surrounding Stupa 2, carved with aniconic representations of the Buddha, was added in the late 2nd century BC under the Shungas, while the four gateways of Stupa 1 were built in the 1st century BC under the Satavahanas.

Carved with stories of the Buddha's past and present lives and with incidents from the subsequent history of Buddhism, the gateways are the finest spenciments of early classical art, which formed the seedbed for the entire vocabulary of later Indian art.

Two fo the moving stories told on these portals are those of Prince Vessantara, who gave away his wealth, his wife and children out of charity and compassioin, and of Buddha who, as the monkey king, sacrificed his life to wave his companions.

The inscriptions on the gateway mention donors from all over northern India and special mention is made of the ivory workers of Vidisha who sculpted the stone with the precision of jewelers.