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In the foreground are four of his tribe, with their hands joined in the attitude of respect or adoration. They are either welcoming the arrival of a venerated sage, or bidding him God speed on his departure,—which, or on what occasion, there seems nothing to indicate at present.* This scene, too, takes place in a river or fresh-water Like, as maybe gathered from the plants that grow in it, and the geese that swim about. One of these seems to run a great risk of choking itself with a fish it is trying to swallow, and another — of being devoured by a crocodile, who is opening his jaws to seize him. On the right, at the lower corner, is a sacred tree hung with garlands, and standing on or behind an altar; but the Dasyus do not seeni to be paying any respect to it. Above it is a tree of another species, in which some monkeys are disporting themselves. Above this and on the other side are four other trees, all of different species, and conventionally portrayed, but with so much individual character that they might be easily identified. It is hardly necessary to attempt this here, as — they do not seem to have any significance beyond representing a forest on the shores of the lake, though this seems an indispensable accompaniment to all scenes in which the Dasyus appear. The upper scene belongs to the Southern Gateway, and is seen near the bottom of the fallen pillar (Plate XIX.). .The lower is on the front of the Eastern Gateway, on the left-hand pillar in the centre (Plate aN): * Both General Cunningham and Colonel Maisey are inclined to give a much more elevated niterprotation to the bas-relief than that I have ventured to suggest. ‘The former considers it as representing Sakyas Nirvana (Bhilsa Topes, p. 204.), and Colonel Maisey thinks the whole is of Mithraic origin, Iam sorry to differ’ from such authorities, but the scene seems to me as prosaic and realistic as any in the whole series.. ; | Maa se OS UO a *WAISNW VION! ‘HLM ‘Sootao™ “720 J8Sivu 700 9 BEES RSES ISHS ISISIE : ‘= 7} Ny a - Ce ’ | 7 \ : \\ c 7 \ f- SEs , Se Ae, J i = FU, mis *4y s . fo Lys ; \ Y — “ : N pp ae Z ah Vip ae ; —~ NLAAAAAAAAAAAAKAAS Nh, lL DESCRIPTION OF PLATES, 129 PLATE XXXII. THE lower figure in this Plate has already been alluded to in speaking of the bas-reliefs on the back of the Northern Gateway (Plate VII.). It is here shown more in detail, and is the most complete picture of Dasyu life and manners which the Sanchi Tope affords, and is so interesting as to make us regret extremely that. we have only a verbal description of the sculptures on the front of the same beam, eked out by a.somewhat indistinct photograph. The subjects on the two sides of this architrave are evidently parts of the same action, and are among the most a al historical bas-reliefs at Sanchi. ‘ There appears to be nothing in this picture which it seems possible to ‘interpret as having a religious: significance. The man on the right, with the pot of fire before him, seems cooking his dinner, and his wife assisting him. There are the usual tongs and the pile of bits of wood or metal, to which it is difficult to attach a meaning if they are not firewood. - There is no anvil and no hammer to lead us to suppose lie was working metal, which at first sight- seems probable. “In the background is a girl bearing a bundle on her head; a boy is practising _ shooting with a bow; a man and woman are making love; children are feeding tame deer, snd playing. In the foreground fwo Dasyus are pouring water on the hands of two others of the same tribe., In front of the same architrave, it will be recollected, the principal ceremony is the king pouring water on the hand of a Dasyu chief,— as before mentioned, in confirmation ofa grant or oath. Every one at all familiar with Hindu mythology will recollect when Vishnu, in his. fifth Avatar, descended upon earth to check the power of the great Bali, he asked for -as much earth as he could compass in three steps; and when this was “granted, he required that the king should confirm his grant by pouring water on his hand. This done,-he stepped” over earth, sea, and. skies, and so deprived him of the . sovereignty of the universe, In all Hindu sculptures the pouring of water on the dwarf’s hand is the incident principally: insisted upon. On the left of the bas-relief the Hindu Raja, or rather two Rajas, are approaching, preceded, as we shall frequently have occasion to. point out in the sequel, by drums and fifes and a boy bearing a spouted vessel like a teapét. The two children, also, who figure on the front of the architrave, reappear here. . From the lions and other wild animals who appear in the background, it is evident: the scene is laid in the forest; but-no-objeet of worship appears anywhere, and no indication of a religious character. For“the present we can do little more than describe it as a visit from the Hindu Raja to the Dasyu chief: The upper bas-relief is from the inner face of the left- hand pillar of the Eastern Gateway (Plate XIV.). It is immediately below that representing the same people worshipping the five-headed -Naga (Plate XXIV.), and may therefore have some connexion with it,.though it is not easy to say to what extent this may be the case. In itself it represents a family of Dasyus following their usual avocations, (4799.) R 130 THE TOPE AT SANCHI On the right two men are splitting wood with hatchets; and what is: most remark- able is, that the heads of their axes are tied on to the shafts as if they were of stone. Yet in the same bas-relief we have the tongs or ladles, which certainly are of metal; and we can hardly understand a people who could make metal pincers using stone hatchets. On the left is a youth carrying a bundle of sticks, and in front of him another with two baskets slung as a bangy, as is so usual at the present day. The principal interest of the picture rests, however, with the three. old men in the foreground. The one in the centre is pouring something’ into his. fire-pot. The one below him is blowing his fire with a fan, and he on the extreme left is apparently cooking something in the flame, but what it may be, it is almost impossible to guess. There are, of course, the usual tongs and slips of wood (?), and all the usual accompaniments as are found on all Dasyu bas-reliefs. One thing is further worth remarking in this, which is, that’ two at least of the men have their long hair tied up ina knot on the top of their heads, and not the conical head-dress or mode of dressing the hair usual in other Dasyu scenes. In the centre of the background of this bas-relief is what at first sight seems a Dagoba in a square enclosure. It can hardly, however, be meant for this, as it has no Tce, and a Dagoba without a Tee is more absurd than a Christian steeple without a belfry, or a Mahomedan minaret without a gallery. Its mode of construction, too, is most peculiar. It looks as if it were made of ropes wound round an internal framework, and the two eye-like openings are just such as would result from pulling the ropes apart to make a window. 1+ may possibly be a forest chapel, but if so it is strange that it should be introduced in the centre of the picture, and the ‘people in the foreground paying no attention to it. Wherever a sacred object is introduced in the other sculptures, all present are turned towards it, and all are reverencing the sacred emblem, whatever it may be. Besides all this, the square enclosure is not, so far as is now known, a Dagoba form. Looking at all. the circumstances of the case, my own impression is that it represents the tomb of some Dasyu chief, and is introduced merely to indicate the spot where the scene in the foreground is being enacted. It seems nearly certain that the rails that surround the Dagobas are refined copies of the rude stone circles which enclosed the graves of the common people, but we have as yet found no form out of which the Dagoba itself could have arisen. It is not copied from an earthen tumulus, as in. that case it would have been a straight-lined cone; still less did it arise from a dome of con- struction, as all are, and always were, solid. Nowhere, indeed, has anything’ been found to suggest a type. But if this is a tomb of the aborigines, the mystery is solved. We have the prototypes both of the Rails and of the Dagoba itself; and both are’ in the form we now find them—exactly what we know Buddhism to have been—a refinement—a sublimation, if the: expression may be used, of the faith and practice of a pre-existing Turanian civilization. — SEN UI. / ye * PLATE, XN =a pe (sea sase] 202124212188 ; — . Zz t 2 — : - \ > : ® * i i \ \ \ \} q | , <i \\ \ t J | i \ \ \ \ [OE \ ‘\ 4 ' ~ MY, fo HEEL \ | | {i \ f [ Nooo | ay) P| hy | ~~) Ys Tus i W. GRIGGS, LITH. : Mm UDDELIST BES RELIEF. DESCRIPTION OF PLATES. 131 PLATE XXXII. Tur bas-relief represented on this Plate is one of the most extensive as well as one of the most important of the Sanchi series. It occupies nearly the whole of the inner face of the right-hand pillar of the Eastern Gateway (Plate XITTI.). There is only the warder below, and a small subject of Tree Worship above. It is more than usually interesting, also, from its being ‘the only subject at Sanchi which can be ascribed with absolute certainty to Buddhism, as we now know it. There are. others which may doubtfully be assumed to portray events in the life of Sdkya Muni, but this one certainly is meant as a short biography of the Prince. The relief is divided into four parts. In the upper we have Maya, the wife of Suddhodana asleep on the terrace of the palace, dreaming that a white elephant appeared to her, and entered her womb.