Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c10.s3.1

c10.s3.1

Amongst pre Mauryan relics those found inside the oldest known Stūpa at Piprahwā (Dist. Basti) on the Nepal border, 11 miles from Kapilvastu are most important. The Stūpa, 116 feet in diameter at the base and 21.5 feet in height at present, was built in brick (16"/11"/3") as a solid cupola, with excellent masonry, well and truly laid, containing inside it a great sandstone coffer, made out of a huge monolith with a lid fixed by clamps, having perfect edges, bespeaking the highest quality of craftsmanship. According to an inscription, the Stūpa was built by the Śākhyas, relatives of the Buddha, to enshrine a part of his original relics (*iyam salila nidhane Budhasa Bhagavate śakiyānam*). The stone box cointained in a casket not only some scraps of bone as relics but several hundreds of other articles of high artistic value, e.g. ornamental forms, flowers and leaves wrought in various semi-precious stones as carnellion, amythist, topaz, garnet, coral, crystal, shell and metal (*Ratna-pushpa*).