English
Tt is true it may have been undertaken to acquire or recover some valued relic, or for some such Buddhist object, bat fighting on a Buddhist monument is at strange variance with usually received opinions. When from these we pass on over another three centuries to the time of the sculptures at Amravati, we find a state of affairs much more nearly approaching to the usually received formula of Buddhism. Buddha, the ascetic, occasionally appears in the usual attitudes and the usual costume, but much more frequently in the more modern than in the older bas-reliefs of this Tope. His statue does not apparently occur among the fragments of the central Dagoba,* and only twice on the fragments we possess of the great Rail. On the smaller, Rail, however, such representations become frequent, and very similar to what. we are accustomed to on the Caves and Buddhist temples after the fifth century. The actual worship of the Dagoba occurs as a rule only on the central building. It is frequently represented afterwards, and with more elaboration, on the inner Rail, which I take to be the last important addition to the Tope, but it can hardly he svid that it is. there represented as worshipped by the people of the sculptures. It is more like ‘a frame to contain pictures to be reverenced by the people. The purely abstract symbol of Relic Worship has become a storied page of legendary lore, and, if I read it rightly, the picture has to a very great extent Coicrau) the original idea of the relic shrine. : + * Ido not feel quite sure about Fig. 1., Plate LXXXVII It may. belong to the central building, but J rather think it was a detached statue. RELIGION. 993 On the other hand, Tree Worship maintains nearly the same relative position of importance at Amravati that it did at Sanchi, but with this’ important quali. fication. Where the two Topes have anything in common, it is most apparent in those points in which they approach. nearest in age. We find, consequently, the Tree Worship most important in the central building, next in the great Rail, but nearly cyanescent in the sculptures of the inner Rail. It only occurs once in the- place of honour on any Dagoba in our collections, and never on the frieze nor on. the wall. _ The change is so gradual that it can hardly be accidental, and IT am on the whole inclined to believe that Tree Worship was to some extent losing its importance before the sculptures at Amravati were complete. The Chakra or Wheel, on the contrary, seems to have gone on growing in importance. Nothing at Amravati exceeds the fanciful elaboration of the pillars which support this emblem, and it is introduced so frequently and so prominently | that it was evidently considered one of the principal emblems of the faith. The Trisul emblem seems also to grow in importance as we descend the stream of time. As before mentioned, it does not seem to have been directly worshipped _ at Sanchi, nor is it so treated in the central building at Amravati, but on the great Rail it occurs several times elevated on what appear to be fire pillars, and most decidedly as a thing to be worshipped. The greatest change that took place between. the two epochs | seems to have been in the position of the Naga. As just mentioned, he appears only once as an object of worship at Sanchi, and from six to ten times as spreading his seven-headed hood over some important personage. At Amravati he occurs certainly ten or twelve* times in the place of honour on the Dagoba or on pillars as the principal ‘object to be worshipped. Twice he occurs in a similar position shielding the head of Buddha, thrice protecting the sacred feet, and at least thirty, it may be fifty times spreading his hood over Rajas - or persons of importance, exclusive of course of the women with their single snakes, who are always more numerous. There is of course some uncertainty in. stating. these figures, as we have only so small a portion of the Amravati sculptures at our command, but-on the whole I am inclined to think that what we possess is a fair representation of the whole, and if so, it is not too much ‘to assert that the Naga is the great and ruling idea at Amravati, and seems to have been growing in importance from the oldest buildings there till the time when additions ceased to be made, and the place became deserted. ; The Horse is another animal which was certainly honoared at Amravati to an extent that we are justified in calling worship 5 it hardly, however, seems to have been a grgwing faith, and probably was more prominent in the central building than in subsequent erections, though it appears prominently on the inner Rail. Another important change is, that at Amravati we have shaven priests, such _as we easily recognise and such as we find at the present day on the other side of the Himalayas, or in Ceylon or Burmah. * Tam forced to state the numbers thus rather vaguely, because I cannot always feel quite sure whether some of the drawings in the Mackenzie Collection may not represent sculptures in that of Sir W. Elliot ; generally, the difference is easily recognized, but not always. 224 CONCLUSION. Music and dancing are still represented at Amravati, though rarely. Drinking hardly occurs, and love is kept in the baekground. In fact we cannot but feel, in comparing these sculptures, that when we come near the end of the Amrayati series we are approaching very nearly to the state of affairs which existed when the Ceylonese and Thibet books were first composed. At Sanchi we were in another and ‘an older world, but by degrees religious forms assumed a state more nearly resembling what we now find. Another century, and the sculptures of the Tope might have served literally as illustrations of the Mahawansa or the Lalita-Vistara. Meanwhile the ‘great interest resides in the fact that they represent a state of affairs that existed before these or any Buddhist books we now possess were reduced to their present legendary form. ETHNOLOGY. It is more difficult to speak with anything like precision regarding the ethnology than as to either the architecture or religion displayed in the Topes. This does not arise so much from any want of distinctness in the sculptures as because the countries of ILydrabad and Berar have never yet been scientifically explored. We are almost entirely ignorant regarding the different races who inhabit the vast central plateau of India, on whose outer edge these two ‘Topes were erected, and we neither know whence they came nor when they settled in their present locations. . Now that the Nagpore territory has escheated to British rule, there is a prospect of something being done to clear up these difficulties, but the only result hitherto obtained from the labours of the Nagpore Antiquarian Society is to show us how much remains to be done, and at:the ‘same time what a- vast amount of valuable material exists on the spot and is available for the inquiry. : ‘The people most distinctly characterized in the sculptures ‘of these two Topes are those I have designated Dasyus or Takshaks. They are infinitely more important ‘at Sanchi than at Amravati, but appear in both places as a quasi aboriginal race, and treated as inferiors by the builders of the Topes. They appear at the same time to be the real and original Serpent worshippers, and if their connexion with Taxila and the Punjab can: be satisfactorily established, it will’ throw considerable light on the principal features of the present inquiry. Meanwhile it is curious to observe, as we pointed out before, that asa straight line drawn from Taxila to Amravati passes through Bhilsa, Nagpore, and other localities where Snake Worship was especially prevalent, it does look like the central line of such a migration. If any such ever took place, it was long anterior to Buddhism, possibly before or in consequence of the great war, celebrated in the Mahdbhdarata. Another race, who seem almost as distinctly marked, are those with short curly hair. There are only two men so distinguished at Amravati, and the sculpture on which they are found is of such inferior execution (Plate LXXXIV.) that no argu- ment can well be founded upon it. In Plate LXIL., Fig. 2., several women are so distinguished, but no men. At Sanchi the case is different. The drummer boys eencrally have curly hair, so have the charioteers and menials in many instances, und in onc bas-relief (Plate XXVIII.) these curly-headed people seem tobe. the ETIUNOLOGY. . . 995 principal actors. From their costume they seem to come from some colder country, and I have suggested Bactria, though there are no doubt many ¢ difficulties in such an attribution. At first sight it might be supposed they came from Africa—Zanzibar —like the Hubschees at present in the Nizam’s service, but in the absolute silence of all tradition the difficulties. in the way of such an hypothesis seem greater than — as regards the other. The question has rather a curious interest in an artistic point of view, as there seems little doubt that it was from this people—whoever they were—that Buddha derived the negroid hair by which his statues are always distinguished, and which has given rise to so much speculation. In so far as we now know, sculpture, taught by the Greeks, was practised in the North-west long before it penetrated into India Proper, and it-is probable that the earlier statues of Buddha were fabricated there. If this is so it would favour the idea that the curly heads may have belonged to that country. Even supposing it were possible to locate and name these minor groups, the great question would still remain, Who are the people who in the preceding pages have been . designated as Hindus?