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” “In spite of the trees being at the most 70 years old, the common people claim the “ greatest antiquity for the shrine, and tradition says that the three trees that now <-mark me spot neither grow thicker nor ‘increase in height, but remain the same “ for ever.” + ; There is no doubt whatever with regard to the worship of Trees in modern times, and numerous instances might be adduced if necessary. The Bo Tree at Buddh GyAé is worshipped now as it was in the days of Aéoka,t.and the Tree at Anurddhapura is, as mentioned above, the principal object of worship in Ceylon at the present day. And all over India there are numerous examples which we may hope some day to see registered.§ Since this work was commenced I have made every effort to obtain from India information regarding the present existence of Serpent, Worship, but though not so successful as I could have wished, I have been able to obtain several documents on the subject of considerable interest. One of. these is by Dr. C. EH. Balfour, of Secunderabad, whose long study of native manners and customs especially qualify him to speak on the subject. The other is from Colonel Meadows Taylor, so well known for his various literary works connected with India, and who likewise is especially com- petent, by long residence and intimate knowledge of the natives, to speak regarding their forms of worship. Both these documents, with several others of more or less importance, will be found printed in the Appendix.. They are satisfactory as far as they go; but we shall never know exactly what we are to believe regarding the present position of Serpent Worship, till some qualified persons make a special enue of it on the spot. : From these documents, as well as eon such information as I have been able to gather from other sources that were available, my impression is that successive immigrations of non-worshipping races have nearly obliterated the religion of the Serpent from the valleys of the Ganges and Indus. I believe it still exists in Cashmere * The Sacred City of the Hindus, by the Rev. M. A. Sherring. London, 1868, p. 89. t+ Annals of Rural Bengal, by W. W. Hunter, B.C.S. London, 1868, p. 131.. t Buchanan Hamilton, in Martin’s Eastern India, I. p. 76. § The following instance of Tree Worship which I myself witnessed is-amusing, even if not t inetrnetive, While residing in Jessore I observed at one time considerable crowds passing near the factory I then had charge of. _ As it might be merely an ordinary fair they were going to attend, I took no notice; but 4s-the crowd grew daily Jarger, and assumed a more religious character, I inquired, and was told that a God had appeared in a Tree at.a place about six miles off. Next morning I rode over, and found a large space cleared in a village I knew well, in the centre of which stood an old decayed Date tree, hung with garlands and offerings. Around it-houseewere erected for the attendant Brahmins, and a great deal of business was going on in offerings and Pija. On my inquiring how the God manifested 4 - MODERN WORSHIP OF TREES AND SERPENTS. IN INDIA. 15 ana Be epaul; and in the hills generally, but not ‘in the plains. Though I have no proof of it, I cannot help suspecting its existence also in the hills north of Sylhet. I feel nearly certain it will be found throughout the valleys of the Ner- budda and Tapty, and among the hill tribes perhaps as far East as Burdwan. It probably is also more or less, prevalent, all along the western Ghauts’ down as far as Travancore, and sporadically over- the whole of -the Madras Presidency. Its existence in any particular. spot now must not be taken as a proof. either. of its presence or absence at an earlier period. Its presence may show ‘either that. a Serpent-worshipping tribe have not been’ disturbed or may have” migrated to that spot, and its absence may equally be taken to prove either that it never existed there, or that it has been obliterated by other forms. All this will require much care and study before it can be* satisfactorily, mapped out; but the subject.is one of great interest, as bearing ‘on one of the oldest. forms. of faith that the world knows, and would amply repay any pans that might be bestowed on its investigation. NOTE. The annexed woodeut—which ought to have been inserted on page 42—is inte- resting, not only as showing.the Tree and Serpent in juxtaposition, and honoured on a Babylonian cylinder, but because the Tree is of a form with which we are -familiar* on the earliest types of’ Indian coinage, ps will be explained hereafter. * = ~. : . The cylinder from which the represéntation is taken is in the collection of Mr. Steuart, and is engraved in Lajard’s Culte de Mithfa, Plate VI., Fig. 4., but without Cx™P=®, ye pe ra aera “any indication by which its age could be determined. My Rieti impression is, that many of these cylinders, and this among the number, are moré modern than is generally supposed, and may come down to Achzmenian times. In itself this representation is perhaps not of much importance, but it may be well to quote it, in order that those who are familiar with similar objects may turn their attention to them as sources from which information may be obtained regarding Tree or erent Worship. This is oo not a solitary example. his presence, I was informed that soon after the sun rose in the morning the Tree raised its head to welcome him, and bowed it down again when he departed. As this was a miracle easily tested, I returned at mon and found it was so! After a little study and investigation, the mystery did not seem difficult of explanation. The Tree had ' originally grown across the principal pathway through the village, but at last hung so low, that in order to enable people to pass under it, it had been turned aside and fastened parallel to the road. In the operation the bundle of fibres which composed the root had become twisted like the strands of a rope. When the morning sun struck on the upper surface of these, they contracted in drying, and hence a tendency to untwist, which raised the head of the Tree. With the evening dews they relaxed, and the head of the Tree declined, thus proving to the man of science, as to the credulous Hindu, that it was due to the direct action of the Sun God. "* *J.A.8.B,, vol. VIL; Plate XXXII K 2 77 THE TOPE AT SANCHI. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. BEForE proceeding to describe the two buildings which form the subject of the present work, it may be convenient to point out, as briefly as possible, the general characteristics of Buddhist architecture, and to indicate the relations of these two monuments to the other members of the group. to which they belong. th, the first place, it cannot be too strongly insisted upon, or too often repeated, that stone architecture in India commences with the age of Asoka (B.c. 250). Not only have we as yet discovered no remains whatever of stone buildings anterior to his reign, but all the earliest Caves either in Behar or in the western Ghits show architecture in the first stage of transition from wood to stone. One half, indeed, of the essential architectural structures of the Caves at Bhaija and Karlee, and of * the earliest -at Ajanta, is wooden, and’ the wood still remains in some of them to the present day. Though some of these Caves are earlier than the Christian era, none are so old as the time of ASoka.* ; Whether looked at from an archzeological, an architectural, or an ethnographic point of view, this wooden origin of Indian Buddhist architecture is one of the most interesting facts connected with the subject. To the archeologist it affords an assurance that in this imstance, at least, we have got to the beginning of things, and that all beyond the first imitation of wood can only be rude masses of stone that in themselves tell no tales, and can only be dated from evidence external to themselves. The architect, in studying this art, feels that for once he is assisting at the birth ‘of a new style, and that during the five or six centuries, to which this work refers (B.c. 250 to. A.D. 860), he is gradually watching the growth of an original form of art, which was uninfluenced by any external or dorelgn element, but left to its own innate powers of development. + The steps by which the rail at Sanchi was elaborated into that at Amravati will be pointed out in the sequel, in so far as they are at present ascertained ; * For particulars I must refer the reader to my History of Architecture, II., p. 4356, et seq. + The nearest approach to anything like this in the west, is to be found in Lycia. Its early tombs are as wooden as the Caves of India, but they fell almost immediately under the influence of Greek art, and became Tonic before they had time to develope themselves into a native Lycian tye CLASSIFICATION OF MONUMENTS. a) Ist. Topes or Stipas, with their surrounding rails and lAts; two of the oldest. known examples of these, which happen also to be among the richest and most elaborately ornamented, form the subject of the present work. : Qmd. Chaityas. -Both in form and purpose these are almost absolutely identical with the early Churches of the Christians, though several of those ‘cut in the rock wera most ‘probably excavated before the Christian era. 3rd. Vihdras, or Monasteries, forming in the earliest times the residences of the monks or priests who were attached to the service of the Topes or Chaityas, bat . afterwards the independent abode of monastic communities, who had chapels or places set apart for devotional purposes within the walls of their monasteries. Taking the last first, we are almost wholly dependent on rock examples for our knowledge of the arrangement and mode of adornment of Indian monasteries.