Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c12.s3.t6.4

c12.s3.t6.4

The smaller balustrades belonging to the stairway, berm and the harmikā are similar to those of Stūpa III both in form and construction. The uprights of the stairway are relieved both on their inner and outer faces with one complete and two half discs of varying patterns. Similar floral rosettes are also carved on the inner face of the landing balustrade but the outer faces are decorated with narrow bands of carving between the rosettes. On the other hand the berm balustrade or pillars of the second parikramā have merely plain disc medallions, on the inner face of which the central ones are sometimes omitted. But the discs on the outer face of the pillars of this projecting ledge are relieved with lotus designs and other floral or animal devices; e. g. a lion, a bull or an elephant. The coping of the harmikā is also decorated on its inner side by a row of full-blown lotuses forming the pushkaraśraj design. The relic box, deposited inside a relic-chamber which itself was placed at two feet distance from the centre, contained four small caskets of steatite with Śarīra dhātu or the bodily relics of the ten missionaries sent by Aśoka to preach the doctrine, some of whom had also taken part in the Third Council of Pāṭaliputra. Although these teachers lived in the time of Aśoka, their relics must have rested for some time at different places until they were assembled to be enshrined together in this Stūpa which seems to have been a recognised practice in the Śuṅga period.