English
A passage for editorial review. UVMUUUNLUEIDD NN HH 00042678 AS Se a THE ASIATIC SOCIETY OF BOMBAY TOWN HALL, BOMBAY-400 023. 8 we we 8 ee ee es we 8 ee Digitized with financial assistance from Observer Research Foundation on 17 May, 2019 TREE. AND SERPENT WORSHIP: OR LLUSTRATIONS OF MYTHOLOGY AND ART IN INDIA fvst and fourth Centuries after Christ. FROM THE SCULPTURES OF THE BUDDHIST TOPES SANCHI AND AMRAVATI. PREPARED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THY SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA IN COUNCIL. | WITH 4 a 6 78 INTRODUCTORY ESSAYS AND DESCRIPTIONS: OF THE PLATES JAMES FERGUSSON, Q., E. R.S.,. MLR. A. S., - AUTHOR OF “ PICTURESQUE ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDE AN ARCHITECTURE,” “HISTORY OF ARCHITECTERE,” nC, LONDON: INDFA MUSEUM, - 1868. . W" #. ALLEN AND CoO.,, 13, WATERLOO’ ‘PLACE, oe Publishers to the Endia Office. I Hitt HU HH Hil LONDON Pmsren kon tHe Inpra Orrice By Eyre and Srovriswoove, Hee Majesty's Printers. : . wey vs vd \ a tepaate 2" PREFACE ey $ id . ~ ee.’ ¢ . . : .? ‘ 4 : ji : ee : é : . “Tae story of this Ahoolk “is, simple, hut it seems necessary it should be told im “Ol der that much which it contains may be gamete a: ‘its’ true value, and not — taken. for” what: it “does not pretend to he. Pon . When in the autumn of 1866 arrangements Wore ioe. made ia this country © for the great Paris Exhibition, to be held in the following) year; > Mr oe oe to me that it would afford an excellent opportunity for forwarding my des ; a dissemination of knowledge of Indian art and architecture. “Having 1 completed my “ History of Architecture,” and having consoquenty the requisite lisa | fell readily into his views; and after due consideration it ‘was. arranged ae should exhibit a large collection of Photographs of Indian possessed, together with others to which I ae access. — It vas a mere collection of Photographs, without ‘some more Pp ne it ob Oa raw attention to og would re answer the ERROR, I therefore ‘proposed that of the merit “of the “ual from specimens of. ‘tie true-di en ee SS I next examined, among other places, the sguasignnitg the India M useum,. then HERR Touse, for the purpose of obtaining . the a models 1 casting “and after - carefully going over the whole, fixed on four’ is _of sculpture from the Amravati Tope as those best’ suited for my purpose. ee Tong been familiar with thése” marbles, as they” ‘had beerf sent to this country by Oolanee | ae before. 7 1820,-and were the principal ornaments a the old Museum ‘in Leadenhall Street. ~s I <had often admired them: when there, and considered them so curious and so 7 ¥ interesting that, had- an opportunity éceurred, I would have thonght it well worth while to make a voyage’ to India specially: for the purpose. of exploring 4 the pe, - and of examining the numerous. antiquities u knew ‘to oxist in its. neig ae hood. J was therefore not, a little, ‘astonished at _being informed . that a large” < ‘collection of marbles from the ‘same e nouument were stored ih the ceaetichouses a ws gpioiment rng. s CBR) % y . 4 2 2b ri * de ae iv PREFACE. On investigation I found that Mr.—now Sir Walter—Elliot, when Commis- sioner in Guntir in 1845, had excavated a considerable portion of the monument, and sent down to Madras the results of his explorations. They lay there, exposed to the wind and rain, for ten or twelve years, and then were sent home, angpaticr short sojourn in the Docks, were deposited where.I found them, in consequence of there being no space in the Museum itself for their exhibition. This most unexpected discovery made a considerable ‘alteration in the plan of campaign. It was now determined, instead of casting any, to send ‘four or five specimens of the marbles. themselves to Paris, and to bring out and photograph the whole to the same scale, so as to enable them to be pieced together, and a restora- tion of. the monument was thus effected. In this. project I. was warmly seconded by Dr. Forbes Watson, the Director of the Museum, who lent me ever y assistance which the means at his disposal afforded, and notwithstanding numerous difficulties, —it was mid-winter, and the snow on the ground the oveater part of the time—the task was successfully accomplished, in consequence of the intelligence and untiring zeal of Mr. Griggs, ‘the photographer attached to the establishment. As soon as a complete set of the photogtaphs was obtained, I set to work to piece them together, and by processes explained in. the text obtained two elevations of the outer Rail, shown on a reduced. scale in Plates XLVIII. and XLIX., and one of the inner Rail, Plate LXXV., all which were exhibited in Paris. with the marbles, and some 500 other Photographs of Indian architectural pbjects. During the three or four months, however, which I had spent poring over these Photographs, I had not only become familiar with their forms, but had acquired a considerable amount of unexpected knowledge of ancient Indian art and mythology. The greater part of this was quite new to me, but- seemed of sufficient importance to justify me in making it ‘public ; ; and in pursuance of this object, I exhibited the Photographs and read a paper on the subject to the Royal Asiatic Society in June 1867, which ” afterwards was printed in- their. Journal, vol. IIT. of new series, p. 132, et seqq. This paper, however, was very far from exhausting the subject, or from illustrating 7 the monument to the extent which seemed desirable, and I in consequence appealed to the Secretary of State for India in Council for assistance to enable me to. publish the ‘whole of the Photographs, with such explanations as might seem desirable. Sir Stafford. Northcote entered warmly into the project, and the Council most liberally eranted. the permission and funds necessary for its execution, in the section of the India Museum devoted to the reproduction of works of artistic value. It was then intended that the work should consist of thirty or thirty-two Photographic Plates and eighteen or twenty. Lithographs, with the accompanying explanations; | but should be confined wholly to the Amravati Tope. It was then also PREFACE. agreed that the price should. be limited to three guineas, on the principle adopted in the Department, that the public should obtain this and other similar works at prices calculated only to cover the cost of production. In the ‘course, however, of the investigations required for carrying out this project, I lighted on a beautiful series of drawings of the Sanchi-Tope; imade in 1854 by Lieutenant-Colonel Maisey, of the Bengal army, and which were thert-in the Library of the India Office; and at the same time received from Lieutenant Watérhouse, R.A., a set of Photographs of the same monu- ment. The sculpturés of “this Tope bore so directly on the subject in hand, that, having now ‘ample means of illustrating the Sanchi ‘Tope also, I determined to publish’ it as ‘a “sequel to, that at Amravati. As the work progressed, however, it became apparent that this was in reality putting the cart before the horse. That at ' Sanchi was. the oldest ofthe two Topes; and it would be reading the book backwards to publish fivst, the more ‘modern example. -I in consequence again applied to the India Council, and’ my proposal being met in the ‘same liberal spirit, the work has assumed its present form and price. _ When this stage was reached it became a very serious question what form the text of the work ought to assume. The great danger to be avoided was apparently the assumption that the Tree and Serpent Worship portrayed in the illustrations of this work should be considered as a mere local Indian superstition. In order either to eilist the sympathy of. Buropeati scholars, or to place it on its true. basis, it secmed indispensable to explain how far that form. of “worship had prevailed in other countries, and to what extent it underlaid or ihfluenced other forms of faith. To do this fully and completely was quite incompatible with the scope of the present work, even if I had been qualified to attempt it. At the same time, however, I could not but feel that to have made the text a mere description of the two Topes, and to announce it as such, was simply to seal the. book against general readers, and to relegate it to the small and I fear diminishing body of enthusiasts who are supposed to delight in grubbing in the despised local antiquities of India. On the other hand, to treat it from a scientific and more. cosmopolitan point of view required an author who not only kilew Sanskrit’and Pali sufficiently well to read the ordinary . texts, but who could also decipher inscriptions and pronounce on paleographic puzzles. He ought also to have devoted some years study at least to the Western branch of the subject, from the early Grecian to its latest Finnish developments. To none of these accomplishments can I-make the smallest possible preteisions. My knowledge of Indian languages is confined ‘to the vernacular dialects, and I had never devoted any special attention to Tree or Serpent Worship in the West before T undertook this work. I am therefore wholly " dependeht on translations, which “are shldom completé and not always trustworthy, for my knowledge.of. the Eastern vi PREFACE, branch of the subject, and to a moderate course of reading for the Western. A: more cautious or prudent man, aware of the numerous pitfalls which such a course ‘must lead him across, would have declined the undertaking altogether; and all I can plead in excuse for my temerity is, that in all instances I have tried to write well within what I believe to be my real knowledge. So much indeed is this the case that my impression is, that the. work is more open ‘to criticisyy “Yor what it omits. than for what it contains, and.