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VIII] BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE, &c. 117 the cultivation of some of the abstrusest sciences like astronomy, will be conceded by all historians of India; and it will be our pleasing duty to acknowledge such friendly .services rendered: by one cultured nation to another, wherever we find facts justifying us in acknowledging such indebtedness, or even in presum- ing it. But it is necessary to warn our readers against hasty assumptions where facts are absolutely wanting, or where facts go directly’ against such assumptions. : In architecture the Hindus are not indebted to the Greeks. Buddhist Hindus developed their school of architecture themselves from the very commencement ; they created their own style, which is purely Indian ; they borrowed from no foreign school of architecture or building. In G&ndhara and in Western Punjab columns have been found distinctly belonging to the Ionic order, and the general architecture, too, bearsa Greek character. But in the vast continent of India itself, from Bombay to Cuttack, the architecture imme- diately before and immediately after the Christian Era is purely Indian in character. This would not have been the case if the Hindus had learnt their first lessons in architecture from the Greeks. In sculpture too, the Hindus are not indebted to the Greeks. Dr. Fergusson, speaking of the rail of Bharut (200 B. C.) says, “It cannot be too strongly insisted upon that the art here displayed is purely indigenous. 118 BUDDHIST PERION. [BOOK Iv. There is absolutely no trace of Egyptian influence. It is in every detail antagonistic to that art. Nor is there any trace of classical art; nor can it be affirmed that anything here established could have been borrowed directly from Babylonia or Assyria. The capitals of the pillars do resemble somewhat those at Perscpolis, ‘and the honeysuckle ornaments point in the same direction; but barring that the art, specially the figure sculpture belonging to the rail, seems an art elaborated on the spot, by Indians, and by Indians “ only.”* Having thus cleared our ground, we will now proceed to give a very ‘brief account of some of the most striking specimens which still exist of the architecture and sculpture of the Hindus of the centuries immediately before and after the Christian Era, and Dr. Fergusson will be our guide on this sub- ject. Such specimens are nearly all the work of Bud- dhists. Architecture in stone previous to the Buddhist movement, was confined mostly to engineering works, such as city walls, gates, bridges, and embankments ; and if palaces and religious and civil edifices were also sometimes’ built of stone, no specimens of such have come down to us. On the other hand, the Hindu and Jaina edifices of stone which abound in all parts of India belong to the period subsequent to the fifth century * Indian and Eastern Architecture, London, 1876, p. 89. CHAP. VIII] BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE, &i:. 11g | of the Christian Era, and will therefore be treated of when we come to the Pauraink Period. In the present chapter, therefore, we will speak of works constructed in the Buddhist Period, and such works are all Bud- dhist. Dr. Fergusson classifies the works under five heads, UE, — | (1) Zéts, or stone pillars, generally bearing insciip- tions; (2) Stiépas, or topes, erected to mark some sacred event or site, or to preserve some supposed relic of Buddha ; (3) Auci/s, often of elaborate workmanship ; often erected to surround topes ; (4) Chaityas, or churches ; and (5) Vthéras, or monasteries. 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 BYDDHIST PYRION. [BOOK Iv. The Lat seems to have been thrown down and re-crected by Emperor Jahangir in 1605 A. D., with a Persian inscription to commemurate 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 fora lion. At Karli, between Bombay and Poona, a Lat stands in front of the cave of Karli sur- mounted by four lions. The two L&ts at Erun are said to belong to the era of ‘the Gupta kings. The remarkable iron pillar near the utab 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, Emi Dr. Bhau Daji to the 5th or 6th century. —Atiahabad Lat. Admitting the 5th century to be its date, “it opens SOILS ever meee sensensseaeabecrreensenndy bh LORRI sredkesreneneveveceranaweceeenswenseceeseeneeccees CHAP. VIL] BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE, &C. 120 our eyes,” as Dr. Fergusson states, “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 Lat 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 STdpas, 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 11 ft. in height, and the gateway, covered with the most elaborated sculpture which will be subsequently described, is 33 ft. in height. 122 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [Book Iv. 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, vzz., one at Sonari, 6 miles away, one at Satdhara, 3 miles further on, and anumerous 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 itis brickwork, rising to a height of 128 ft. above the surrounding plain. The lower part is relieved by eight prvjecting CHAP, VIH.] BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE, &C. 123° 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 Jarasandha-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 Stipa or Dagoba at Amardvati which ~ Houen Tsang saw no longer exists. In the Gandh4ra “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 GAndhdara 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 goo feet in circum- ference. The most elaborately ornamented architectural works of the Buddhist Period are the RAILs and gateways generally found round Stapas. The two oldest rails are those of Buddha Gaya and of Bharhut; Dr. Fergus- son sassigns 250 B. C. for the former, and 200 B, C. for the latter. The former formed a rectangle 131 feet by 9$ feet, and the pillars were 5 feet 41 inches in height, 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 44 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.