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The oldest LAts are those which were erected by Asoka in different parts of India, and bearing inscrip- tions, conveying to his subjects the doctrines and moral rules of the Buddhist religion. The best known Lats are those of Delhi and Allahabad, the inscriptions on which were first deciphered by James Prinsep. Both of these bore the inscriptions of Asoka, while the Allahabad Lat also bore a subsequent inscription of Samudra Gupta of the Gupta dynasty of kings as we have stated before, and details the glories of his reign and the names of his ancestors. 120 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK IV. The Lat seems to have been thrown down and re-erected by Emperor Jahangir in 1605 A. D., with a Persian inscription to commemorate the commencement of his reign. Like most other Lats this has lost its crowning ornament, but a Lat in Tirhoot bears the figure of a lion on the top and the Lat of Sankissa, between Mathura and Kanouj, bears the mutilated figure of an elephant, so mutilated that Houen Tsang mistook it for a lion. At Karli, between Bombay and Poona, a Lat stands in front of the cave of Karli sur- mounted by four lions. The two Lats at Erun are said to belong to the era of the Gupta kings. The remarkable iron pillar near the Kutab Minar has been seen by every tourist and traveller who has been to Delhi. It is 22 ft. above ground and 20 inches under ground, and its diameter is 16 inches at the base and 12 inches at the capital. There is an inscription on it, as on other Lats, but unfortunately the inscription bears no date. James Prinsep ascribed it to the 4th or 5th century, Dr. Bhau Daji to the 5th or 6th century. Aiuhabad L&t. Admitting the 5th century to be its date, "it opens s ■ Digitized by Google CHAP. VIII.] BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE, &C. 121 our eyes," as Dr. Fergusson states, M to an unsuspected state of affairs to find the Hindus at that age forging a bar of iron larger than any that have been forged even in Europe to a very late date, and not fre- quently even now. As we find them, however, a few centuries afterwards using bars as long as this Lit in roofing the porch of the temple at Kanarac, we must believe that they were much more familiar with the use of this metal than they afterwards became. It is almost equally startling to find that after an exposure to wind and rain for fourteen centuries, it is unrusted, and the capital and inscription are as clear and as sharp now as when put up fourteen centuries ago." Of the St^PAS, the Bhilsa topes are the most famous. Within an area, 10 miles east and west and 6 north and south near the village of Bhilsa in the kingdom of Bhopal, there are no less than five or six groups of topes containing about 25 or 30 individual examples. General Cunningham first published an account of them in 1854, and since then they have been repeated- ly described. The principal of these topes is known as the Great Tope of Sanchi, and has a base 14 ft. high and a dome 42 ft. high, and 106 ft. in diameter at the point just above the base. The rails are 1 1 ft. in height, and the gateway, covered with the most elaborated sculpture which will be subsequently described, is 33 ft. in height. Digitized by Google 122 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK IV. Tope, Sanchi. The centre of this great mound is quite solid ; being composed of bricks laid in mud, but the exterior is faced with dressed stones. Over this there was a coat of cement which was no doubt adorned with painting and figures in relief. There are many other groups near Sanchi, viz., one at Sonari, 6 miles away, one at Satdhara, 3 miles further on, and a numerous group at Bhojpur, seven miles from Sanchi. Another group is at Audhar, five miles from Bhojpur. Altogether there are no less than sixty topes within one small district Most of our readers who have visited Benares have seen the tope at Sarnath, erected in the old Deer Park, where Gautama first preached his new religion. It consists of a stone basement 93 ft. in diameter solidly built to the height of 43 ft. Above it is brickwork, rising to a height of 128 ft. above the surrounding plain. The lower part is relieved by eight projecting Digitized by Google CHAP. VIII.] BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE, &C. 1 23 faces elegantly carved, and with a niche in each. General Cunningham believes the date of this to be the 6th or 7th century A. D. Another Bengal tope is known as Jar&sandha-ka- Baithak, 28 ft in diameter and 21 ft. in height resting on a base of 14 ft. It is mentioned by Houen Tsang, and its date is probably 500 A. D. The central Stupa or Dagoba at Amar&vati which Houen Tsang saw no longer exists. In the Ga*ndh4ra country there are numerous examples. The great Dagoba however of Kanishka over 470 feet in height which Fa Hian and Houen Tsang saw is no more. The most important group of the G£ndh£ra topes is that of Manikyala in the Punjab, between the Indus and the Jhelum. Fifteen or twenty were found in the spot, most of which were first opened by General Ventura and M. Court in 1830. The principal tope has a dome which is an exact hemisphere, 127 feet in diameter, and therefore about 400 feet in circum- ference. The most elaborately ornamented architectural works of the Buddhist Period are the Rails and gateways generally found round Stupas. The two oldest rails are those of Buddha Gayd and of Bharhut ; Dr. Fergus- son assigns 250 B. C. for the former, and 200 B. C. for the latter. The former formed a rectangle 131 feet by 98 feet, and the pillars were S feet 1 1 inches in height. Digitized by Google 124 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK IV. Bharhut is situated between Allahabad and Jubbul- pore. The tope enclosed here has entirely disappear- ed, — having been utilized for building villages, but about one-half of the rail remains. It was originally 88 feet in diameter, and therefore about 275 feet in length. It had four entrances, guarded by statues 4J feet high. From General Cunningham's restoration, it appears that the pillars of the eastern gateway were 22 feet 6 inches in height. The beams had no human figures on them. The lower beam had a procession of elephants, the middle beam of lions, and the upper probably of crocodiles. The rail was 9 feet high, and the inner side was ornamented by a continuous series of bas-reliefs, divided from each other by a beautiful flowing scroll. About a hundred bas-reliefs have been recovered, all representing scenes or legends, and nearly all inscribed with the title of the Jdtaka represented. It is the only monument in India which is so inscribed, and this gives the Bharhut rails a unique value. We make no apology for quoting the following remarks of Dr. Fergusson's about the state of Indian sculpture as disclosed by these rails. " When Hindu sculpture first dawns upon us in the rails of Buddha Gay& and Bharhut, B. C. 200 to 250, it is thoroughly original, absolutely without a trace of foreign influence, but quite capable of expressing its ideas, and of telling its story with a distinctness that never was surpassed Digitized by Google CHAP. VIII.] BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE, &C. 12$ at least in India. Some animals such as elephants, deer and monkeys, are better represented there than in any sculptures known in any part of the world ; so too, are some trees, and the architectural details are cut with an elegance and precision which are very admirable. The human figures too, though very different from our standard of beauty and grace, are truthful to nature, and where grouped together combine to express the action intended with singular felicity. For an honest purpose-like, pre-Raphaelite kind of art, there is probably nothing much better to be found anywhere." The rail surrounding the great tope of Sanchi in the kingdom of Bhopal, is a circular enclosure 140 feet in diameter, and consists of octagonal pillars 8 feet in height and two feet apart. They are joined together at the top by a rail 2 feet 3 inches deep, and between the pillars. This is, however, about the simplest rail arrangement, and the ornamentation on the rails increases in other places, until the scrolls and disks and figures become so elaborate and profuse as to completely hide the pillars and bars from the sight, and to entirely change the character of the original design. The great tope of Sanchi of which we have spoken before was probably constructed in Asoka's time. Each rail is shewn by the inscription on it to be the gift of a different individual. The four gateways were Digitized by Google 126 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK IV Rail at Sanchi. then added to the rail probably during the first century of the Christian Era. Dr. Fergusson thus describes them : — " All these four gateways or toranas as they arc properly called were covered with the most elaborate sculptures both in front and in rear, — wherever in fact their surface was not hidden by being attached to the rail behind them. Generally the sculptures represent scenes from the life of Buddha, * * In addition to these are scenes from the Jatakas or legends, narrating events or actions that took place during five hundred births through which Sakya Muni had passed before he became so purified as to reach perfect Digitized by Google CHAP. VIII.] BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE, &C. 1 27 Buddhahood. One of these, the Wessantara or the "alms-giving" Jataka, occupies the whole of the lower beam of the northern gateway, and reproduces all the events of that wonderful tale, exactly as it is narrated in Ceylonese books at the present day. * * Other sculptures represent sieges and fighting and consequent triumphs, but so far as can be seen for the acquisition of relics or subjects connected with the faith.