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On the other side are two women playing on drums,t two on harps, one on a flute, and a fifth dancing, but all likewise with snakes, and all in the costume which I have ventured to designate as that of the Hindus. ‘The worship of the Naga by the bearded Dasyus,.as represented in the upper bas-relief, does not occur again at Sanchi, and it occurs only. once at Amravati. There, however, the five-headed snake very frequently occurs in front of the Dagoba, and in a position where it is intended it shall be worskipped not _only by Dasyus, but by all the world. - . The Hindu male ér Chief canopied by the Naga, as shown in the lower, occurs at least ten times { at Sanchi, and must have occurred several hundred times at Amravati. What are we to infer from this? Is it that the Naga is the god of the. aboriginal Dasyus, whom the intruding Hindus adopted so far. as to represent him shielding and honouring them? ‘The Hindus, it must be recollected, were the builders of the Topes and the carvers of the sculptures, and there is no instance a‘ Sanchi of a Hindu doing honour to the snake. The snake there always honours them. Or is it that the race I have called Hindus were the real Naga people, and they taught the Dasyus to do honour to their god? These questions will recur continually to every one reading the following pages, and it is premature to attempt to decide them now; but I may state that my impression is, that Snake Worship was an old and prevalent form of aboriginal faith all over India before the Aryan immigration, and that the Aryans adopted it in proportion as they became mixed with the aborigines and theit blood became less and less pure. It is not mentioned in the Vedas, hardly hinted at in the R&m4yana, occupies a considerable space in the Mahabharata, appears timidly at Sanchi in the first century of our era, and is triumphant at Amravati in the fourth, and might have become’ the dominant faith of India had.it not been elbowed from its place of power by Vishnuism ‘and Sivaism, which took its place when it fell together with the religion.of Buddha, to which it had allied itself so closely. *. Both General Cunningham and Colonel Maisey call these figures Kinnaras, If I am rightly informed, however, that term is properly applied only to a flying figure with a horse’s head. Garuda is probably the correct name to apply to them. Care, however, must be taken not to confound these Buddhist figures with the Garuda of the Mahabharata, the celebrated son of Vinaté, and the dreaded enemy of all the Naga race. - Perhaps Devas would be the most correct denomination. These are the first of the Buddhist hierarchy, and at least in one instance are represented as acting as here shown, “ When Bosat was about to arrive at that place —the Bo-tree at Buddh Gya—all the Dévas of the world of forms first hung on the Tree silken banners and streamers.”—See J. R. A. S., XX, p. 157. + If anyone will observe the way the snake attaches itself to the back of the left-hand drummer girl, they will understand how the two snakes grew out of the shoulders of Zohak. Some such representation of him must have existed in the time of Firdusi: hence the fable. { I speak of those only I have been able to detect in the photographs ; neither General Cunningham’ nor Colonel Maisey were sufficiently aware of their Baporuyiee to count them. SENOUI. PLATE XXV. FIG. 1 iis ytd iy f cerrrey ie vie AW GD * )) Ly ee ae iNplAL GO wy (ih ) Sites Wp pe al oN NG ff jj y a) " “TREE WORSHIP. DESCRIPTION OF PLATES. 115 PLATE XXV. WuatEVER doubt may exist as to the extent to which the Hindus intend at Sanchi to honour the Serpent, or to represent the Serpent as honouring them, there is none whatever as to the reverence they everywhere are represented as paying to Trees. These alternate with the Dagobas on the architraves as the two principal objects of worship, but taking also the representations on the pillars into account, the Tree is certainly the chief divinity of the place. That represented as the principal subject (Fig. 3.) of this Plate, may be oonaidinred as a typical example. -It occurs in front of the left-hand pillar of the Eastern Gateway. (Plates XIV. and XV.), next to the Fire Temple, with the Naga of the last Plate, and their juxtaposition may -have some meaning, all the figures in the Naga bas-relief being Dasyus, all those in the Tree picture being Hindus. The tree itself is the Pipal (Ficus religiosa), the true Bo-tree of the present Buddha. A temple has been built around it, and it is represented as growing out of its windows. In front is an altar, on which is the Trisul ‘emblem, and it is difficult to understand what its presence here can mean, unless it is “ Buddha,” or “ Sacred to Buddha.” Above the tree is the ennobling Chatta, and on either hand Garudas or Devas bearing offerings. Below, on each hand, two male worshippers in _the costume of the Hindus, . Fig. 1. of this Plate is. one of several ‘subjects to which it is difficult to attach any distinct meaning or story. In the centre is a tree of a different species from any we have yet met with; and two men in Hindu costume, one on either hand, seem to be offering worship to it. In addition to this, however, there are two small shrines. or temples, each with what appears to be an altar in front. That in the centre above has no worshippers. The one on the left below is encircled apparently with a wall of rude stones; that on the right by the usual Rail. Men in Hindu costume seem to be offering prayers to both these temples—are they tombs ?—and between them a child is ‘seated cross-legged, in the attitude we usually associate with Buddha. This bas-relief is in front of the left-hand pillar of the Northern Gateway (Plate XXXT.), a little higher than Fig. 2., which is the lowest of three bas-reliefs “which ornament the inner face of this pillar. _ The tree in Fig. 2. is of a different species from that represented in Fig. 3., though it occurs in both the uppet corners of Fig. 1. There, it does not appear as a sacred ‘tree at all. In this bas-relief it stands ‘behind an altar, and has garlands pendent from its branches, but no ennobling Chatta surmounts it. Notwithstanding this, one male and eleven ‘female figures a are certainly worshipping it, and one woman presenting an offering. It would be patron: if the species of this ‘tree could be devermined; as * The jiseaipeiots: according to Cunningham, p. 263, reads, “ The pillar gift of Nasuave Achavada, the Sreshthi or Chief of the weavers.” P 2 116 THE TOPE AT SANCHI, according to Buddhist tradition each of the twenty-four successive Buddhas of the present “‘ Kappo”’ had a different Bo-tree.* Their names, in Pali, are all recorded, and could no doubt be identified with known trees, and many of them with those represented in these sculptures. This is evidently a flowering tree ( Champa ?), and occurs more frequently than any other, except the * Religiosa,” which we know to be the Bo-tree of the present Buddha.t- : The women in the bas-relief all wear the enormous chignon which ladies in these days seem to have considered a sufficient. substitute for all other dress. In this instance, however, their costume is not quite so pen to this objection as is usually the case either here or at Amravati. * Turner’s Mahawanso, p. XXXII. t I have been unfortunate in not being able to procure from any competent Indian botanist the assistance requisite to enable me to determine the species of the various trees represented in these bas- reliefs. There is difficulty attending it, no doubt, as the representations are to a considerable extent con- ‘ventionalized; but still artists who could draw animals so well, that in no instance can a mistake be made as to which is intended, could also draw trees so as to enable them to be identified.. The subject, however, is neither pressing nor very important, and can be done hereafter. There are, I think, only six or seven species altogether, and there can be very little doubt as to one or two of these. Ward, in his Hindu Mythology (8d edition, vol. I. 263), enumerates the following trees as considered sacred and worshipped by the followers of Vishnu :—the Pipal and the Banyan, Ficus religiosa and Indica; the Vukoolu, Mimusops elengi; the Huritukee, Zerminalia citrina; the Amalakee, Phillanthus emblica; and the Ninbu, Melia azodaracta. Except the Banyan, all these will, I believe, be found in our peepicreliows: SANOKI. re PLATE XXVI. uty Gis ck oe or SI SZ itt Lit DESCRIPTION OF PLATES. : 117 PLATE XXVI. THE two bas-reliefs represented in Plate XXVI. occur the one over the other on the inner face of the right-hand pillar of the Northern Gateway; Fig. 2. is, however, on the pillar above instead of below Fig. 1. (Plates X. and XII.) Both are representations of Tree Worship, but the lower one is remarkable because the two principal devotees are monkeys. Two men in Indian costume stand behind them, with their hands in the attitude of prayer, and beside them two females with offerings in their hands. In front of the altar, behind which the Tree stands, are two other Hindu females, with a child between them, kneeling in deep devotion. Of the two monkeys one is making an offering to the Tree, the other is in ecstasies. _ In describing the back of the Eastern Gate, we have already seen all the beasts of the field (not monkeys) hastening to do honour to the Sacred Tree, but here we have monkeys mixed with men, or rather preferred to them;. as the men stand back, while the monkeys present their offerings, they are really the principal worshippers.