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.

Early Buddhist art has no finer expression than these toranas that surround the Great Stupa. The Buddha, according to the tenets of early Buddhist art, is portrayed in symbols: the lotus representing his birth, the tree his enlightenment, the wheel, derived from the title of his first sermon, the footprints and throne symbolizing his presence. These have been carved with such inspired intensity and imagery that, taken together with the surrounding figures, they are considered the finest of all Buddhist toranas, and counter-balance the massive solidity of the stupa they encircle.