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were erected by the Guptas in the fifth century, and mark the change that had taken place’ in Buddhist feeling. His own personal greatness and glorifi- cation was the object of the king who erected the more modern examples, and no longer a disinterested desire for the religious welfare of his people, which seems to have been Asgoka’s only motive. Intermediate between these two periods we have - mumerous examples, Some cut in the rock, as at Karlee and Kenheri} but generally they are found attached to Topes. Two certainly at one time adorned each of. the four entrances of the rail at both Sanchi and Amravati, and several of these still remain; most of them, however, are prostrate, though some are standing. The capitals of those of Asoka were generally surmounted by a single lion or elephant* or other animal. At Sanchi and Karlee we have four lions seated back to back on their ‘capitals, and at the former place. sometimes a single figure of a ian standing. My impression is, that wherever four animals are found surmounting x ‘column, they avere not intended as the final ornament, but as the support of a wheel—probably i in metal—or some other Buddhist emblem. : ‘In other instances we have four men, and these overshadowed by the seven-headed serpent. At Amravati they seem more generally to have been crowned by miniature Dagobas,_ but-sometimes also by men, and. by other emblems.+ As all these will. be more particularly described in the sequel, when this occurs in the Plates, it is not necessary 10 dwell more on their peculiarities in this place. # Histo of Architecture, Woodcuts, 969 and 970. + From some photographs recently received from Nepal, it appears that the practice still prevails there. ‘The statues of their kings stand or are seated on the capitals of tall pillars, sometimes with metal umbrellas | ever their heads, and in one instance at least the king is shaded by the Serpent hood. This in the nineteenth century ! We Ripe SAS ( . SS = tl ya ‘es eo i | -_s )/) SS : ae ie ee Ee a ia a iS : = 88 IEE Sey Be see P SSS Sex LEEE_-LAFZ Reh es s Zum”, Teas ke) WY peeuyasys Wa S35 thE VES ty Venere Ces tify! : ; TYr Sgt Po, Bo SRARS SEE RRP | Gos ee eae, Rg Jin Sseebwes i Bee 8 \ (Nt ers XN ae. ; =. i A s*s.1 3 Seis \ era teil REC 7 tig Sands 88 } Fa ras. AE iS>s PS 8 ovis e its: eethee cad apg phe 233, e255 Co ge ee 4 Shes ~ o EEC Re be A VRRSSE : BRER GS 2 W. GAIGGS, LITH, S KOKL WS ¥ ae A 5 YY SY myyys yvy \ Ox THE BUIN YY ¥ ABA RA yyy UND mR OEAG AR ATT FAG a: ie 555-25 ae TEE PEREBEEE a NN Y eX SKYY, WY WY eM pry yy mMmAyYYy TN. BRD RAD KARA MIAN Os TOP. PLATE Il. v “ye Ms Uae _, “. - DETAILS 2ROM SCULPTURES. : . 87 CHAPTER II. Toprs 4x Sancut. —(Plates I. and IT.) Tue Topes at Sanchi, which it is proposed to illustrate in the following pages, form part of a great group of these monuments situated between the towns of Bhilsa and Bhopal, in Central India. They extend over a district seventeen miles east and west, and about ten miles north and south, in five or six different groups, and number altogether between forty and fifty tumuli of various dimensions. The ' smallest of them are no doubt mere burying places of local chiefs, erected over their ashes, and contain no objects of interest. Others are Dagobas, or relic ‘shrines, in the correct sense of the word; while the great Tope itself (A,-Plate I.) is a Chaitya of Stipa,* erected apparently to commemorate some event in Buddhist history, or to mark some sacred spot.+ —The~great, Tape ot Sanchi (Plate TI.) ‘consists, first, of-a basement 121 feet in diameter and 14 feet in height. On the top of this is a terrace or procession path, 45 feet, 6 inches wide, within which the dome or tumulus itself rises in the form of a " truncated hemisphere to 4, height of 39 feet. ‘This was originally coated with chunan - toa thickness of about four iriches, but whether ornamented with painting or moulded . plaster omaments cannot be ascertained, owing to the very fragmentary state in which the coating now exists. On the top of the. dome was @ level: platform, measuring 34. feet across. This was surrounded by a circular railing of stones, some of the pillars of which are still found among the ruins.. Within this was a square Tee or simulated .relic hox, con sisting of sixteen square pillars with rails, and measuring “11 feet 6 inches each way. Within this again was a circular support for the umbrella which invariably crowned these monuments. When Captain Fell visited this monu- - ment in'1819,{ all this was in situ and nearly perfect; but shortly afterwards some bungling aniahouts dug into the monument, and so completely ruined it, that the form of its superstructure can now only with difficulty be made out. The most remarkable feature, however, connected with this peenaene is the rail ' which surrounds it at a distance of 9 feet 6 inches from the base, except on the south, | where the double flight of steps leading.to the berm or procession path reduces the width to 6 feet 4 inches. As before mentioned, it is 11 feet in height, and consisted . apparently of 100 pillars, exclusive of the gateways. Each of these was apparently the gilt of an individual, and even the rails between them seem to have been presented ~ Vide ante, page 79. + The whole of these Topes were carefully opened and examined by General A. Cunningham and Lieut.- Colonel Maisey in 1851, and the results published by the first-named officer, in his work on the Bhilsa Topes, . by Smith, Elder, & Co..in 1854, { J.A.S. B., vol. IIL. p. 490, et seqq. General Taylor, of the Bengal Cavalry, who was probably the first, British officer that visited the monument, confirms the account given by Captain Fell. He discovered the Tope when encamped near it, during the campaign of 1818. Three df its gates were then standing, and a great part of the Tee still in situ. 88 THE TOPE AT SANCHI. by different persons. General Cunningham collected 176 short inscriptions from this _ rail,* all by different individuals, and each recording that the member on which it was engraved was the gift of some pious person, male or female, but all unfortunately unknown to fame. Not one, at least, has yet been satisfactorily identified. There is absolutely no sculpture on the rail, but fortunately four gateways were added to it about the Christian era, and these are covered with sculptured decorations of the most elaborate kind. Two of these are still standing, and the fragments of the other two are to be seen lying on the ground. The most perfect is the northern entrance, the rear elevation of which forms the frontispiece to this volume. The total height to the top of the central ornament is 33 feet 6 inches. The height to the under side of the lowest rail is 18 feet 6 inches in the centre, and the width of the opening between the two pillars is 7 feet clear. The greatest width is across the lowest rail, and measures within a fraction of 20 feet. The whole, as will be seen from the frontispiece and the photographs, is of a singularly wooden form, and is jointed and morticed together more like a piece of carpentry than a structure of stone.t} Number 2. Tope (B, in Plate I.) is very much smaller than that just described, being only 39 feet in diameter. It springs from a basement 6 feet in height, sup- porting a terrace or berm 5 feet 4 inches wide. Tits section is that of a hemisphere stilted to the extent of 34 feet. Its proportional of height, therefore, is zy feet to 39, ~ oras 8 to 4 nearly; that of the great Tope was only as 1 to 2, showing an advance, which is an almost .certain indication of a more modern age.{ The rail is 7 feet 6 inches in height, and elliptical in plan, in order to allow a clear space of 8 feet as well in front of the ramp as round the other parts of the building. The enclosure thus measures 69 feet by 744 feet. As before explained, the rail is to some extent ornamerited (Woodeut, No. 10), but has no gateways of the sare imposing character as those of the great Tope. The angle pillars are, however, ornamented as well as the intermediate rails, and afford some indications of great value. (See Plates XLIT. aud XLIII., which will be noticed hereafter.) ~~ ~~ Ba eg mie As before mentioned, the great Tope seems to have been a “ monumental tower.” Nothing was found in it. This one, on the contrary, contained four steatite boxes, | in which were placed relics “of Kasyapa Gotra, missionary to the whole of the ~ Himawanta,” and of Madhyama, both these names being mentioned in the Mahawanso as missionaries sent by Asoka to the Himalaya country,§ thus con- firming to the fullest possible extent the inscriptions on the box. Another contained relics of Mogaliputra, who was the head of the Buddhist church at the third convocation (B.c. 241), and altogether the Tope possessed memorials of ten of the principal personages of the Buddhist community during the reign of Asoka. The three named above were well known before the Tope was opened, the other seven were less famous, but their connection can now be traced. I * Cinniaghains Bhilsa Topes, 235, et seq. } All the above dimensions are taken from Colonel Maisey’s MS. notes. { Cunningham, Bhilsa Topes, p. 177. , § Mahawanso, p. 74. || These particulars are taken from General Cunningham’s work, pages 285, et seqq. He and Colonel Maisey seem to have divided the “find” between them. Colonel Maisey’s share is now on exhibition at South Kensington Museum ; General Cunningham’s is in his own house, Clarendon Road, Kensington. HISTORY. 89 There is another Tope at Sanchi, which is illustrated to some extent in this. work, It stands near to the great Tope, and on the same platform (D 3, in plan, — Plate I.