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Outside the Rail a man or a woman on either side of the entrance is always represented either as purchasing offerings from persons who are selling them, or are bringing offerings, generally borne on the heads of dwarfs. On either sidg of the entrance is always placed a vase,t which will be alluded to hereafter. ' All this is practically. new to Indian antiquaries. Hitherto our ideas regarding structural Dagobas have been, derived from the present appearance of those at Sanchi or Manikyala, or- from the very imperfect representations we possess of those in Afghanistan, and these are all now at least plain or hearly so. The one which it seems was intended to. have been as richly ornamented as these was that at Sarnath ; but it was left incomplete, probably in the tenth or eleventh century, which seems to be the age to which its decoration belongs.t Had it been completed it would have been even ‘more elaborately decorated than those at Amravati. Those in Caves hardly help us in this respect; they probably were painted, and the colours having. perished, there is nothing left from which to form an opinion. Those in Ceylon, too, are in much too ruinous a state to aid in this inquiry, so that these representations on the inner Rail are really the only authentic documents we have, and they thus become in this respect invaluable. * Appendix E.,, No. VIL t One which helonged tothe central building is shown on Plate XCVI. It is photographed to the usual scale. t Asiatic Researches, IX. 203. PLATE LXXVIIL. AMBAYVATI. — ar See SE SE es FIG,2. : ELEVATIONS OF PORTIONS OF INNER ENCLOSURE. ScALE | INCH TO | FOOT. | - Yh ox ee = (es Ete DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.” - 204 PLATE LXXVIII. _ Tse upper figure in this Plate is the only slab in the India Museum repre-: senting the Naga in the place of honour on the Dagoba.* But there are among the drawings: in the Mackenzie Collection six others. similar. to this, with merely such variations of detail as occur in all these representations. Generally speaking, the Naga Dagobas are less profusely ornamented with sculpture -than’ those more essentially _Buddhistical in their arrangements, but the subjects all belong to the same class. In this one, for instance, we have Maya’ s dream, the birth of Buddha, and other well-known subjects in the medallions on the dome, and the Wheel, the Tree, the Trisul, and other familiar emblems on the band under the five. steles. The Serpent of course occurs there also. The Rail, too, is identical with that of the other Dagobas. The frieze is generally of,the roll pattern (Plate LVI.), and there are thé four Lions as usual, belonging to each entrance. ‘What we really do miss, and what seems the characteristic distinction between the two, is the absence of worshippers. As will be observed, the panel under the Naga is blank. In a more purely Buddhist Dagoba it would have had two or more kneeling or worshipping figures.. There are no persons outside the.Rail.bearing .— offerings, and there are no historical bas-reliefs. The Nagas had no history apparently. All this makes it difficult to say whether these purely Naga Dagobas were worshipped generally or were appropriated to a particular class like the Dasyus or Takshaks.t My impression is, that at the time these sculptures were executed the Naga and the: Buddha weré so mixed up together, and so nearly equal, that it is impossible to draw any distinction between them, either as to the worship or their worshippers. ‘The two lower photographs in this Plate represent the obverse and reverse of the same slab. The Dagoba itself is the duplicate of that represented in the last _ Plate, and is so very nearly similat that at first sight they might be mistaken for the same. On’ close examination, however, the. differences are easily detected. “The Rail in Plate LXVII. has an animal—this has a roll frieze. The Naga worshippers are on Buddha’s right instead of his left. The position and character of the upper range of bas-réliefs are slightly altered. The subjects of the medallions are changed. In the last Plate the subjects represented in them were Buddha seated, and on either hand the men dancing, and bearing the relic trays on their heads. In this Plate. the scenes are the Annunciation and the birth of Buddha. The two may, however, be taken as a fair example of. the extent of variation with which the same design was repeated four times, once in each quadrant of the Rail.} * I of course except the central slab in Plate LXXV., and such representations as oceur in Plate LXIV., and elsewhere, where the Dagoba with the serpent occurs in conjunction with other objects. t In thé Mackenzie Collection, Plate XIII, two Hindus are worshipping a Naga Dagoba ; but foam their position it is not quite clear that they are worshipping the Naga. { The redder will of course bear in mind the scale-to which the one is photographed is double that of the other. (4799.) ‘CC 202 THE TOPE AT AMRAVATL The great. interest of this slab, however, resides in the sculptures on the back of it. They are very much larger and ruder than anything else at Amravati, and so different in design that they must evidently belong to another age than those we have been describing. On the other.hand the figures, the tree, even the flying harpy-like figures above, are so nearly identical with what are found at. Sanchi (Plates XXIV., XXV., XXVI., XXVII., XXVIII, and XXIX.), but not found elsewhere at Amravati, that we can hardly help ascribing them. to the same age ; obviously executed by an inferior artist, but still nearly identical. The question thus arises, Was there an older building at Amravati, contemporary with the Gateways at Sanchi, which was desecrated when the inner Rail was erected, and its slabs used up for the new buildings? Or was it in situ when the elaborate sculpture of Fig. 38. was added on the other side of it? Taking all the circumstances of the case into consideration, my impression is that the latter: may be the true solution of the difficulty. According to this hypothesis, that which is now the inner Rail was originally the outer Rail of the Tope, sculptured, like Fig. 2., on the inside, but probably plain on its outer face. When the great outer Rail was added in the fourth century, and the procession path carried outside this Rail, then these elaborate sculptures were added to match those of the great outer Rail then being erected. All this is so completely in accordance with what we find being done in Lindu temples in the south of India down to the present day, that I can hardly aed myself to doubt that this was what took place in this’ instance. On the other hand, however, it may also be that both these Rails are parts of an entirely new design commenced only in the fourth century, and that this slab belonged to some building which may have been removed in order that it might not interrupt their alignment. Whichever hypothesis we adopt, the conclusion is the same as regards the age of the sculptures on the front and back of the: slab. It proves incontestably that there was at Amravati a building as old as the Gateways at Sanchi, if not older. My impression, indeed, is that this sculpture is the most ancient of any represented in this volume. It is so difficult, however, to know what allowance should: be made for: locality or the personal equation of the artist, that it is impossible to speak positively on such a subject. As before. remarked (pare 155) the coins found ‘by Colonel Mackenzie would lead us to suppose that Amravati was a- place. of importance as early at least as the Christian era; this sculpture, therefore, not only. tends to confirm that surmise, but aids us materially in understanding the history of the place.*: * A curious piece of collateral evidence to the same effect is obtained from the inscriptions at Karlee and those Western Caves which date from about or before the Christian era. The name of Yavana Dhanaka cheka frequently occurs in them either as an artist or a benefactor, but whether as one person or several has not been determined. Dr. Stevenson (J. B. B. R, A. 8., vol. V., pp. 11, 20, &c.) translates the name as the.“ Greck Xenocrates.” General Cunningham, with much more probability, makes it the ‘‘ Yavana of Dhanaka cheka”! The first reading we may safely reject. If the second is established, it will be interesting to find our city on the Kistnah sufficiently important and artistic to have lent assistance to these great undertakings. At present, however, the indication is too vague for much reliance to be placed upon it. a DADA DARD A Ranke od tf PAMMAL KMRAAUANIO G By YW O)NPyy PORTO YY WD eX we om AMBX a ATT, iS Ox KY YY Y> A AVALAAAA Seance 1 INCH ro 1 Foor. GIKyY Ray CLOS SY Oy ~~ Uke PLATE LXXIX.. a © = AMBAVATIO PLATE LYNX > ENCLOSUBE. | ie go PLATE LXXXt AMBAYVATI. i ie UIs pee ee ~~ | z "4 - TS: | YY YY wry Ars AMMA DaSlatas@hac. aw IC PON ou ; Bah x AMD ne OBTION Ox INE EN CLOSU iis ik oe Tvs 7 1 Foor, - § | : et arae 4 el bo jo) Go DESCRIPTION OF PLATES. PLATES LXXIX., LXXX., any LXXXI. Turse three Plates contain nine photographs of fragments of the Dagobas of the inner. Rail, all to the scale of 1 inch tol foot. They are not all the examples which the Museum Collection contains, but they are probably sufficient to illustrate the variety as well as the monotony of these representations. In Fig. 1., Plate LXXIJX., the principal object of worship is the Wheel, but the Naga appears very prominently’ on the Dagoba.* The same object is repeated in Fig. 3.