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All this may have arisen partly from the tenderness for animal life and kindness to all created beings that Buddhism always inculcated; partly from the doctrine of metempsychosis, which was always an essential part of the faith; but. something may in this instance be due to local tradition. It was in the forest of Dandaka, certainly not far from Sanchi, that Rama met with Hanuman, the godlike monkey, who played so important a part in the subsequent records of the Ramayana. If. monkeys could fight in Hindu tradition side by side with men, why in Buddhist forms . -should they not pray with them? | The Sacred Tree, in this instance, appears to be the Ficus religiosa, but two — other trees are represented, which occur frequently in the bas-reliefs. The one with the large fruit appears intended fo a species of Jack (Artocarpus integrifolius), the other a flowering tree, whi as not yet been identified. a | The upper bas-relief (Fig. 1) represents a Hindu Raja, known to be so by his Chatta, with four female and two male attendants, doing honour to the Tree, | to which two of the females, more fully clad than usual, are presenting wreaths. Above, two .Garudas, bearing offerings, are seen full length. This is one of the few instances in these bas-reliefs in which these figures are seen complete, so that all their features may be distinguished. Their feet, wings, and tails are those of birds; their heads and bodies are those of human beings, but always, as far as can ’ be made out, males, which may be an objection to the name of Harpy, which would seem a name that might be appropriate. These in classical representations were always apparently females, and of an odious nature. Here they are always represented as heavenly messengers, and bringing offerings. As Garudas are always represented as the fifth in rank among the eight heavenly beings* in the Buddhist pantheon, that name is probably the one the Buddhists would themselves employ. - * Tn the Lalita-Vistara (Foucaux), p. 250, et passim, they are enumerated as les Dieux ou Devas, les Nagas, les Yakchas, les Gaidharbas, les Assouras, les Garudas, les Kinnaras, et les Mahdragas. 118 THE TOPE AT SANCHL sbove the tree on the right is another figure very common. in these sculptures, jut seldom seen so completely as in this instance,—a winged lion figure, on which a man rides, bearing an offering. There are abundance of winged lions on the Assyrian sculptures, but they are never represented as flying. At Sanchi they are ulways in the air, and always carrying human figures bringing offerings to the Tree or shrine. The representations at Sanchi are, of course, very much more modern than those in Assyria, but it is not clear that the Indian form may not be of an original stock as old or older than the Assyrian. 7 PLATE XXVIL TREM WORSHIP. DESCRIPTION OF PLATES. 119 PLATE XXVII. On Plate XXVII. are engraved three forms of Tree Worship, which have been reduced to a smaller scale than usual, as they do not present any great features of novelty, but are interesting as indicating some of its forms. Fig. 1. represents eighteen men in Hindu costume, some sitting, some standing, doing homage to a Pipal tree surmounted by a Chatta and attended by Garudas. It is from the inner face of tthe right-hand pillar of the Western Gateway (Plate XIX.). Fig. 2. is immediately above it on the same Gateway, and presents a somewhat more varied form of the worship. Below are three men, one standing in a gateway, in front of an altar, but this group does not seem to have any connexion with that above. In the middle of the picture are three men, three ‘women, and a child, who also seem bent on doing honour to the tree. Above these, on the left hand, are five women, apparently of inferior rank, and on the right hand a lion, an ‘élephant, a boar, an ox, a horse, and a sheep. Among them is a round, very jolly human face, with large ears, and evidently intended to represent a giant or ogré, or some of those semi-human beings so common in Eastern story. The interesting part of the bas-relief is that these animals evidently rank with the females SER and join with the men in doing honour to the Holy Tree. The third bas-relief on this Plate is one which it is éteenny difficult to make out, not that there is anything new in the form or in the objects worshipped, but that owing to the imperfect knowledge of perspective possessed by the artist, it is extremely puzzling to suggest what the stone work between the two trees is intended to represent. It looks at first sight like a stair with a rail on either hand, but it does not lead to any* terrace or building, and the object for which it was designed, or why the two-similar trees should be planted at each end, is by no. means clear. In‘ other respects the sculpture presents no novelty—men, women, and children, _ with drums and musical instruments, are assembled to do honour to the Trees, The upper one seems to be 4 Pipal, evidently the same as that in Fig. 2. The lower bears some fruit or flower, but so does that in Fig. 1., which from the form of its leaves is intended to be a Pipal (Ficus religiosa). In the centre picture a Plantain tree is plainly distinguishable, and. above that the tree I have ventured. to suggest may be a Jack, with the flowering tree that occurs in several of the previous _bas-reliefs. © This sculpture is from ‘the outward face.of the right-hand pillar of the Northern Gateway at the top (Plate XII). Taken together, these three figures fairly represent the most popular Ge of worship at Sanchi. It will be observed that no Dasyus appear in them. Indeed -there is no instance at Sanchi in which those people are associated with the Hindus in worshipping either Trees or anything else. Their worship of the Serpent or Fire or any other object is solitary and ‘apart. It is difficult to understand why this 120 _ "THE TOPE AT SANCHI. should be so, as the Hindus seem never to hesitate to. associate the beasts of the field with them in their worship, and if so why not their fellow men? This is the more remarkable as in other bas-réliefs these Dasyus are treated as equals, and many of the sculptures are wholly devoted to them and their pursuits, and this by the Hindus, who, we must presume, were the People who erected the monument and carved its sculptures. The: preceding—with one other example on the next Plate XXVIII. Fig. 2.— exhaust the illustrations of Tree Worship, in so far as they have been drawn by Colonel Maisey from bas-reliefs exclusively devoted to the subject on the pillars of the Sanchi Gateways. These Plates are far, however, from conveying an adequate idea of the extreme frequency of such illustrations, though they may represent nearly all the forms in which it is found. Taken altogether, the Tree is, generally speaking, the most usual and the most important object of worship represented in the sculptures at Sanchi Tope. Next after this comes the Dagoba, but neither so important nor so frequent. It may be suggested that this is owing to the great Tope being. there itself to be worshipped, and that its mimic representation was therefore not - needed. A careful study, however, of the sculptures renders this explanation hardly tenable. Tt can searcely be doubted but the sculptures are intended to represent the creed, and the whole creed, of the people who erected the Gateways, and the relative importance of each part of the faith. It is probable, therefore, that the frequency or prominence of any object sculptured in these Gateways may fairly be assumed as representing its relative importance. DAM CEM. | PLATE XXVIIL dk SS ee 2 > <r — ~ <te Ry SK F > i ws By nas : ian WE PB ; BS) BV (05) ro) NM | “A >. 4 DOREY NGA SS f 6 CTT] |b ees AE a ae Nyy | At SE ae ia a . Toth ke S f nae oN pel << ZA . 276) oe Se by. Z 5 ~~ ve Y\\ UR Al Arh Oy ey Wy, hates HE a if Le ¢ 5 ) o “i | A tae E FIG.3 wa AREA AATATANE Y Ly ¥ f Nie ND Ay Wits Ap rE EE TREE a =| cE di SAE — — Serv DEL: TREE &ND ‘DEORE WORSHIP, DESCRIPTION OF PLATES. 121 PLATE XXVIII. Or the three subjects in this Plate, the one (No. 2.) in the upper corner on the right hand is wholly devoted to Tree Worship. The central portion of the lowest bas-relief (Fig. 3.) is devoted to the same form of faith, but in conjunction with the worship of the Dagoba. The upper one on the left hand is wholly devoted to the last form. The two first named conclude, for the present, our illustrations of Tree Worship ‘at Sanchi, and the pictures in this Plate serve to introduce the form next in importance. 7 In Fig. 2. twenty-one men, with two Garudas or Devas, are assembled to do honour to the Tree, which in this instance is the flowering tree with reversed leaves, frequently alluded to above. The head-dresses of the men are more than usually exaggerated in this bas-relief, and so are the drums which two men are beating with clubs. , In the lower bas-relief (Fig. 3.) two men and two Garudas are doing honour to the Tree, in this instance the Ficus religiosa, and here treated as equal to the Dagoba, and alternating with it throughout.* With the one exception of that represented in Fig. 1. of this Plate, the typical form of all the Dagobas' in the sculptures at Sanchi is that shown in the lower figure (No. 3.). The dome is represented as a little higher than a hemisphere, and adorned by a wreath of flowers hung on pegs prepared for the purpose. The lower part is surrounded by a Rail, apparently detached, as in the case of the great Tope, and the summit is always surmounted by a Tee of the usual form. Above this is an umbrella, sometimes with flags, and almost always with two or more wreaths dependent from its angles. Garudas almost invariably.