History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c13: Chapter IV. Rails.

History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c13

Language: English

v1.c13.s1 Bharaut or Bharhut. — 25 parts
v1.c13.s2 Mathurâ (Muttra). — 5 parts
v1.c13.s3 Sânchi-Kânâkhedâ. — 30 parts
v1.c13.s4 Amarâvatî. — 25 parts

Chapter IV. Rails.

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Rails at Bharaut, Mathurâ, Sânchi, and Amarâvatî.

IT is only within the last forty years or so, that our rapidly-increasing knowledge has enabled us to appreciate the important part which Rails play in the history of Buddhist architecture. The rail of the great Tope at Sânchi has, it is true, been long known; but it is the plainest of those yet discovered, and without the inscriptions which are found on it, and the gateways that were subsequently added to it, presents few features to interest any one. There is a second rail at Sânchi which is more ornamented and more interesting, but it has not yet been published in such a manner as to render its features or its history intelligible. The great rail at Bodh-Gayâ is one of the oldest and finest of its kind, but, though it was examined and reported on by Râjendralâl Mitra and by General Cunningham, neither of them added much to our previous information. When the Amarâvatî sculptures were brought to light and pieced together,¹ it was perceived that the rail might, and in that instance did, become one of the most elaborate and ornamental features of the style. In 1863 General Cunningham found two or three rail pillars at Mathurâ (Muttra), of an early Jaina stûpa, but his discovery, in 1874, of the great rail at Bharaut made it clear that this was the feature on which the early Buddhist architects lavished all the resources of their art, and from the study of which we may consequently expect to learn most.

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¹ 'Tree and Serpent Worship,' Preface to the First Edition.

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The two oldest rails of which we have any knowledge in India are those at Bodh-Gayâ and at Bharaut. The former, General Cunningham thought, cannot be of much later date than Asoka.² The latter has been ascribed to the period of the Sunga dynasty, or about two centuries before the Christian Era.) On the whole, I am inclined to believe that the Bodh-Gayâ rail was really erected by Asoka, or during his reign. At all events, we know from the fifteenth chapter of the 'Mahâwansa' that even if he did not worship this tree, he is said to have reverenced it to such an extent that, as tradition reports, when he sent his daughter Sanghamittâ to aid in the conversion of Ceylon to the Buddhist creed, he cut off and entrusted her with a branch of this tree planted in a golden vessel. That tree was replanted with infinite ceremony at Anurâdhapura, and it, or its lineal descendant, remains the principal *numen* of the island to this day. Hiuen Tsiang tells us that Asoka built a small vihâra to the east of the tree on the spot where the present temple stands;¹ and nothing is consequently more probable than that he should have added this rail, which is concentric with his vihâra, but not with the tree.

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² 'Archæological Reports,' vol. i. p. 10.

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¹ Grünwedel, 'Buddhist Art,' Eng. tr. p. 70; Julien, 'Mémoires,' tome i. pp. 464-465; Beal, 'Records,' vol. ii. p. 118.

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There certainly is no inherent improbability that he should have done so, for it seems hardly doubtful that this was the traditional tree under whose shade Sâkyamuni attained "complete enlightenment," or, in other words, reached Buddhahood; and no spot consequently could be considered more sacred in the eyes of a Buddhist, or was more likely to be reverenced from the time forward.

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The Bharaut rail, according to an inscription on it, was erected by a Prince "Vâtsî-putra Dhanabhûti, son of Gauptî-putra Angâradyut, and grandson of Gârgîputra Visvadeva"—"in the time of the Sungas."² (This helps us only to a small extent, indicating, however, that this rail is of somewhat later date than the time of Asoka.) Some fragments of another rail of early date were also found at Patna—the ancient Pâtaliputra—in excavations conducted there by Dr. L. A. Waddell, in 1895, which are much of the same type as those of Bodh-Gayâ.³ As already mentioned, we have no complete set of photographs of the Bodh-Gayâ rail. It is true the drawings by Major Kittoe, in the India Office Library, are very much better than those published by General Cunningham in his report;⁴ but they do not suffice for this purpose. (In so far, however, as the evidence at present available enables us to judge, it seems nearly certain that the Bharaut sculptures are somewhere between those of the gateways at Sânchi and those at Bodh-Gayâ; and consequently we may, for the present at least, assume the latter rail to be B.C. 250, that at Bharaut B.C. 200, and the gateways at Sânchi to range from about B.C. 160 to say B.C. 100.)

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² 'Indian Antiquary,' vol. xxi. p. 227.

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³ Waddell's 'Report on the Excavations at Pâtaliputra' (Calcutta, 1903), plates 1 and 3.

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⁴ 'Archæological Reports,' vol. i. plates 8 to 11. In Râjendralâl Mitra's 'Buddha-Gaya,' plates 34-38 and 44, 45, a number of medallions from the rail-pillars are given; but the drawings in the volume are so often inaccurate in details that we cannot altogether trust them. In Cunningham's 'Mahâbodhi,' plates 8 and 9, are given small photographs of a few discs. A complete survey should give the whole pillar in each case; of eight of them there are photographs in the Calcutta Museum and India Office.

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The Bodh-Gayâ rail is a rectangle, measuring 145 ft. by 108 ft., and is very much ruined. Its dimensions were, indeed, only obtained by excavation.¹ The pillars are apparently only 6 ft. 8 in. in height, standing on a plinth, and are generally ornamented with a semi-disc top and bottom containing a single figure, or a group of several. They have also a central circular disc, with either an animal or bust in the centre of a lotus. Portions of the coping of the rail have been recovered, the inner faces of which are ornamented with long lines of animals—elephants, deer, bulls, winged horses, makaras, centaurs, etc.; and the outer faces are carved with bands of flowers. The intermediate rails between the pillars are sculptured with circular lotus flowers on both sides, some of them containing busts or animals. As the most ancient sculptured monument in India, it would be extremely interesting to have this rail fully illustrated,² not so much for its artistic merit as because it is the earliest authentic monument representing manners and mythology in India. (Its religion, as might be expected, is principally Tree and Serpent worship, mingled with veneration for dâgabas, wheels, and Buddhist emblems. The domestic scenes represent love-making, and drinking—anything, in fact, but Buddha or Buddhism, as we afterwards come to understand the term.)

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¹ Gen. Cunningham assumed that the original rail formed a rectangle, about 74 ft. from north to south by 54 ft. from east to west; but at a *later* date it was reconstructed as an enclosure for an enlarged temple, measuring 145 ft. from east to west, and 108 from north to south (‘Archæological Reports,’ vol. iii. p. 90, and plate 25). In ‘Archæological Reports,’ vol. i. plate 4, he gave the dimensions of the enclosure as only 131 ft. by 98; and Râjendralâl Mitra (‘Buddha-Gaya,’ p. 73), contends that it measured 154 ft. by 114 ft. 8 in.

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² Major Kittoe made careful drawings of most of the medallions to be seen seventy years ago. Two of them are reproduced here, the first representing a

Bharaut or Bharhut.

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Whatever interest may attach to the rail at Bodh-Gayâ it is surpassed ten times over by that of the rail at Bharaut, which, taking it all in all, is perhaps the most interesting monument—certainly in a historical point of view—known to exist in India. The tope itself, which seems to have been about 68 ft. in diameter, had entirely disappeared, having been utilised by the natives to build their villages; but about one-half of the rail, which was partly thrown down and buried in the rubbish, had been preserved. Originally it was 88 ft. in diameter, and consequently some 277 ft. in length. It was divided into four quadrants by the four entrances, each of which was guarded by statues 4½ ft. high, of Yakshas and Yakshinîs, and Nâgarâjâs carved in relief on the corner pillars. The eastern gateway only is known to have been adorned with a Toran—or, as the Chinese would call it, a “P’ai-lu”—like those at Sânchi. One pillar of it is shown in the woodcut (No. 32) on next page, and sufficient fragments were found in the excavations to enable General Cunningham to restore it with considerable certainty. From his restoration it appears to have been 22 ft. 6 in. in height from the ground to the top of the chakra, or wheel, which was the central emblem on the top of all, supported by a honeysuckle ornament of great beauty. The beams had no human figures on them, like those at Sânchi. The lower had a procession of elephants, bringing offerings to a tree; the middle beam, of lions similarly employed; the upper beam has not been recovered, but the beam-ends are ornamented with conventional crocodiles or makaras, and show

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man on his knees before an altar worshipping a tree, while a flying figure brings a garland to adorn it. The other represents a relic casket, over which a seven-

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30. Tree Worship; Bodh-Gayâ Rail.

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31. Relic Casket: Bodh-Gayâ Rail.

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headed Nâga spreads his hood, and over him an umbrella of state. There are, besides, two trees in a sacred enclosure, and another casket with three umbrellas (Woodcuts No. 30, 31).

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elevations of buildings so correctly drawn as to enable us to recognise all their features in the rock-cut edifices now existing.

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The toran, most like this one, is that which surmounted the southern entrance at Sânchi, which I believe to be the oldest of the four found there, and to have been erected in the middle of the 2nd century, before our era (B.C. 160-150). This

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32. Portion of Rail at Bharaut, as first uncovered. (From a Photograph.)

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one, however, is so much more wooden and constructively so inferior, that I would, on architectural grounds alone, be inclined to affirm that it was the older. The age of the rail, however, does not depend on this determination, as the toran may have been added afterwards.

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The rail was apparently 9 ft. in height, including the coping, and had three discs on intermediate rails. The inner side of the upper rail was ornamented by a continuous series of bas-reliefs, divided from each other by a beautiful flowing scroll. The inside also of the discs was similarly ornamented—their sculptures bearing an evident analogy to those on the Bodh-Gayâ rail, whilst some of the pillars had bas-reliefs in three storeys on three of their sides. Altogether, I fancy not less than one hundred separate bas-reliefs were recovered, all representing some scene or legend of the time, and nearly all inscribed¹ not only with the names of the principal persons represented, but with the title of the jâtaka or legend, so that they are easily recognised in the books now current in Buddhist countries. It is the only monument in India that is so inscribed,² and it is this that consequently gives it such value for the history not only of art but of Buddhist mythology.

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¹ For the translation of these inscriptions by Dr. Hultzsch, see ‘Indian Antiquary,’ vol. xxi. pp. 225-242. See also vol. x. pp. 118ff., 255ff.; vol. xi. pp. 25ff.; and vol. xiv. pp. 137f.

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² The sculptures on the walls of the old Pâpnâth temple at Pattadakal are also labelled; but it is an almost exceptional instance.

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If this work professed to be a history of Indian art, including sculpture, it would be necessary to illustrate this rail to a much greater extent than is here attempted; but as architecturally it is hardly more important than others, the reader who is interested in it may be referred to the volume published by its discoverer.³ Meanwhile, however, it cannot be too strongly insisted upon that the art here displayed is purely indigenous. There is absolutely no trace of Egyptian influence. It is, indeed, in every detail antagonistic to that art; nor is there any trace of classical art. The capitals of the pillars do resemble somewhat those at Persepolis, and the honeysuckle ornaments point in the same direction;⁴ but, barring that, the art, especially the figure-sculpture belonging to the rail, seems an art elaborated on the spot by Indians, and by Indians only.⁵

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³ General Cunningham’s ‘Stûpa of Bharhut,’ London, 1879.

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⁴ Whatever the early Hindûs borrowed from Persia or elsewhere they gradually modified by varying the details, until it became native in form.

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⁵ The following outline (Woodcut No. 33, on the next page) of one of the bas-reliefs on a pillar at Bharaut may serve to convey an idea of the style of art and of the quaint way in which the stories are there told. On the left, a king with a five-headed snake-hood is represented kneeling before an altar strewn with flowers, behind which is a tree (*Sirisa Acasia?*) hung with garlands. Behind him is an inscription to this effect:—“Erâpato (Airâvata) the Nâgarâja worships the blessed one (Bhagavat).” Above him is the great five-headed Nâga himself, rising from a lake. To its right a

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Assuming these facts to be as stated, they give rise to one or two inferences which have an important bearing on our investigations. First, the architecture of this rail, with its toran, are more essentially wooden than even those at Sânchi, and, so far as it goes, tends to confirm the conclusion that, at the period they were erected, the style was passing from wood to stone.

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man in the robes of a priest standing up to his middle in the water, and above the Nâga a female genius, apparently floating in the air. Below is another Nâgarâjâ, with his quintuple snake-hood, and behind him two females with a single

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33. Tree and Serpent Worship at Bharaut. (From a Photograph.)

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snake at the back of their heads—an arrangement which is universal in all Nâga sculpture. They are standing up to their waists in water. If we may depend on the inscription below him, this is Erâpato twice over, and the females are his two wives. The inscription up the side states that this is "the gift of Rishidatta, a preacher."—Cunningham's 'Stûpa of Bharhut,' plate 14.

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This bas-relief is further interesting as being an epitome of my work on 'Tree and Serpent Worship.' As expressing in the shortest possible compass nearly all that is said there at length, it will also serve to explain much that is advanced in the following pages. As it is years older than anything that was known when that book was written, it is a confirmation of its theories, as satisfactory as it is complete.

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On the other hand, however, the sculpture is so sharp and clean, and every detail so well and so cleverly expressed in the hard sandstone in which it is cut, that it is equally evident the carvers were perfectly familiar with the material they were using. It is far from being a first attempt. They must have had chisels and tools quite equal to carving the hardest stone, and must have been perfectly familiar with their use. How long it may have taken them to acquire this degree of perfection in stone carving, it is of course impossible to guess, without further data ; but it must have been centuries. Though, therefore, we may despair of finding any architectural buildings older than the time of Asoka, it is by no means improbable that we may find images or bas-reliefs, and inscriptions of a much earlier date, and for the history of India and her arts they would be as useful as the larger examples.

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For the present we must be content with the knowledge that we now know perfectly what the state of the arts was in India when the Greeks first visited it. Neither the Bodh-Gayâ nor the Bharaut rails were, it is true, in existence in Alexander's time ; but both were erected within the limits of the century in which Megasthenes visited the country, as ambassador from Seleukos, and it is principally from him that we know what India was at that time. If he did not see these monuments he may have seen others like them, and at all events saw carvings executed in the same style, and wooden chaityas and temples similar to those depicted in these sculptures. But one of the curious points they bring out is, that the religious observances he witnessed at the courts of the Brahmanical king, Chandragupta, are not those he would have witnessed had he been deputed to his Buddhist grandson the great Asoka. (Here, as everything else at this age, everything is Buddhist, but it is Buddhism without Buddha.) (He nowhere appears, either as a heavenly person to be worshipped, or even as an ascetic.) The nearest indication of his presence is in a scene where Ajâtasatru—the king in whose reign he attained Nirvâna—kneels before an altar in front of which are impressions of his feet. His feet, too, seem impressed on the step of the triple ladder, by which he descended from Heaven at Sankîsâ ; Mayâ's dream, and the descent of the white elephant, can be recognised, and other indications sufficient to convince an expert that Buddhism is the religion indicated. (But, as at Sânchi, by far the most numerous objects to which worship is addressed in these sculptures, are trees, one of which, the inscription tells us, is the Bodhi-tree of Sâkyamuni.) Besides this, the Bo-trees of six or seven of his predecessors are represented in these sculptures, and both by their foliage and their inscriptions we can easily recognise them as those known at the present day as ascribed to these previous Buddhas.¹

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¹ Turnour's 'Mahâwansa,' Introd. p. 32; Grünwedel, 'Buddhist Art in India' (Eng. tr.), p. 74.

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Nâga people, and kings with their five-headed serpent-hoods, are common; but only one instance has yet been brought to light in which the serpent can be said to be worshipped. Making love and drinking are not represented here as at Sânchi—nor are females represented nude as they are on the Jaina sculptures at Mathurâ. (All are decently clothed, from the waist downwards at least, and altogether the manners and customs at Bharaut are as much purer as the art is better than it is in the example of Sânchi.)

Mathurâ (Muttra).

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When excavating at Mathurâ, General Cunningham found several pillars of a rail, which, judging from the style, is probably later than that at Bharaut, but still certainly anterior to the Christian Era. The pillars, however, are only 4½ ft. high, and few traces of the top rail or of the intermediate discs have been found. Each pillar is adorned by a figure of a nude female in high relief, singularly well executed, richly adorned with necklaces and bangles, and a bead belt or truss around their middles. Each stands on a crouching dwarf or demon, and above each, in a separate compartment, are the busts of two figures, a male and female, on a somewhat smaller scale, either making love to each other, or drinking something stronger than water.²

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² Outlines of these sculptures are given in Gen. Cunningham's 'Archæological Reports,' vol. iii. plate 6; also in Führer's plates 60-64, in V. A. Smith's 'Jaina Stûpa, etc., at Mathurâ.'

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Though the sculptures at Sânchi and Katak have made us familiar with some strange scenes, of what might be supposed an anti-Buddhistic tendency, this rail, we cannot now doubt, belonged to a group of Jaina temples and monastic buildings of a very early age. We do not, indeed, know if the rail was straight or circular, or to what class of building it was attached; but it is pretty certain that these pillars belonged to one or more Jaina stûpas such as that of which the remains were excavated by Dr. Führer in 1888-89. Jaina tradition had always claimed Mathurâ as one of the centres of their sect, and an inscription found there and dated in the year 79 of the Kushan kings, records the consecration of a statue to the stûpa of Supârsva.³ This confirms what had previously been anticipated—that the Jains, as well as the Buddhists, erected stûpas in honour of their prophets, and that their art did not differ materially from that of the latter.¹

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³ 'Epigraphia Indica,' vol. ii. pp. 204, 321f.

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¹ Bühler, 'Legend of the Jaina Stûpa at Mathurâ'; and '*Epigraphia Indica*,' vol. ii. pp. 311 *et seqq.* and plates; see also the curious tale about Kanishka and a Jaina stûpa that he worshipped by mistake.—'*Journal Asiatique*,' IXᵉ sér. tome viii. (1896), pp. 458ff. Conf. *Arite*, p. 54, note 1.

Sânchi-Kânâkhedâ.

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34. Rail at Sânchi. (From a Drawing by Gen. Cunningham.)

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Though the rails surrounding the topes at Sânchi are not, in themselves, so interesting as those at Bodh-Gayâ and Bharaut, still they are useful in exhibiting the various steps by which the modes of decorating rails were arrived at, and the torans or gateways of the great rail are quite unequalled by any other examples known to exist in India. The rail that surrounds the great tope may be described as a circular enclosure 140 ft. in diameter, but not quite regular, being oval on one side, to admit of the ramp or stairs leading to the berm or procession-path surrounding the monument. As will be seen from the annexed woodcut (No. 34), it consists of octagonal pillars 8 ft. in height, and spaced 2 ft. apart. These are joined together at the top by a rail 2 ft. 3 in. deep, held in its position by a tenon cut on the top of the pillars, as at Stonehenge; between the pillars are three intermediate rails, which are slipped into lens-shaped holes, on either side, the whole showing how essentially wooden the construction is. The pillars, for instance, could not have been put up first, and the rails added afterwards. They must have been inserted into the right or left hand posts, and supported while the next pillar was pushed laterally, so as to take their ends, and when the top rail was shut down the whole became mortised together as a piece of carpentry, but not as any stone-work was done either before or afterwards.

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The rail of the No. 2 Stûpa at Sânchi is of special interest as being more ornamented with sculptures which, with many of the inscriptions, appear to belong to a period distinctly antecedent to those of the gateways of the great stûpa (Woodcut No. 35); there circular discs are added in the centre of each pillar, and semicircular plates at top and bottom.¹ In carpentry the circular ones would represent a great nail meant to keep the centre bar in its place; the half discs top and bottom, metal plates to strengthen the junctions — and this it seems most probably may really have been the origin of these forms.

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¹ The sculptures on this rail have not been fully illustrated; some of them were drawn by Col. Maisey. See his 'Sânchi,' plates 29-31, and pp. 67-70.

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35. Rail, No. 2 Tope, Sânchi. (From a Drawing by Col. Maisey.)

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If from this we attempt to follow the progress made in the ornamentation of these rails, it seems to have been arrived at by placing a circular disc in each of the intermediate rails, as shown in the woodcut (No. 36), copied from a representation of the outer face of the Amarâvatî rail, carved upon it. In the actual rail the pillars are proportionally taller and the spaces somewhat wider, but in all other respects it is the same—it has the same zöophorus below, and the same conventional figures bearing a roll above, both of which features are met with almost everywhere.

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36. Representation of Rail. (From a Bas-relief at Amarâvatî.)

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A fourth stage was reached in that shown in the next woodcut (No. 37), from a representation of a rail in the Gautamîputra cave at Nâsik, *cir.* A.D. 160 to 175, where there are three full discs on the pillars as well as on the rails, and no doubt other variations may yet be found; but these are sufficient to show how the discs were multiplied till the pillars almost become evanescent quantities in the composition.

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37. Rail in Gautamîputra Cave, Nâsik.

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The greatest innovation, however, that took place, was the substitution of figure-sculpture for the lotus or water leaves of the discs, if that can be called an innovation, which certainly took place in the wooden age of architecture, before it was thought of translating these things into stone. The earliest rails we know, those at Bodh-Gayâ and Bharaut, show these changes already completed in the manner above described. The plainness of the rail, or the absence of figure-sculpture, is consequently no test of its greater or less antiquity, though the extreme multiplication of discs, as shown in the last example, seems only to have taken place just before their discontinuance.

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To return, however, from this digression. The rail that surrounds the great tope at Sânchi was probably commenced immediately after its erection, which, as explained above, was probably in Asoka's time, B.C. 250; but as each rail, as shown by the inscription on it, was the gift of a different individual,¹ it may have taken a hundred years to erect. The age of the torans is more easily ascertained. There is an inscription on the south gateway, which is certainly integral, which states that the gateway was erected during the reign of King Sâtakarni of the Andhra dynasty, and it is nearly certain that this applies to a king of that name who reigned about B.C. 155. If we assume that this gateway—which leads to the steps by which the berm is ascended—is probably the oldest of the four, it gives us a starting-point from which to determine the age of the others. The next to be erected would be the northern. That may have been followed by the eastern—the one of which there is a cast at South Kensington—and the last erected was perhaps the western.¹ The style and details of all these show a succession and a progress that could hardly have taken place in much less than a century, and, with other reasons, enable us to assert without much hesitation, that the four gateways were added to the rail of the great tope during the 2nd century before the Christian Era.² The northern gateway is shown in the general view of the building (Woodcut No. 12), but more in detail in the cut (No. 38) on the following page.

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¹ Gen. Cunningham collected and translated 196 inscriptions from this tope, in his work on the Bhilsa Topes, pp. 235 *et seqq.*, plates 16-19; but the more accurate versions of a larger collection of 378 from this rail and 78 from that of Stûpa No. 2, are those by Professor Bühler, published in 'Epigraphia Indica,' vol. ii. pp. 87 *et seqq.*, and 366 *et seqq.*

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¹ In later stûpas, the west side seems to have been frequently regarded as the front; but generally it was on the side facing the monastic buildings.

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² The details from which these determinations are arrived at will be found in 'Tree and Serpent Worship,' pp. 98 *et seqq.* Since that work was published, however, the discovery of Sâtakarni's name in the Hathigumpha inscription, at Khandagiri, the re-adjustment of the chronology of the Andhras, and other epigraphical results, have considerably altered the actual dates ascribed to monuments of this early period; their relative ages, however, are not materially affected by this.

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In design and dimensions these four gateways are all very similar to one another. The northern is the finest,³ as well as somewhat larger than the others. Its pillars, to the underside of the lower beam, measure 18 ft., including the elephant capitals, and the total height to the top of the emblem is 35 ft. The extreme width across the lower beam is 20 ft. The other gateways are somewhat less in dimensions, the eastern being only 33 ft. in height. The other two having fallen, and—though re-erected by Government—we cannot be sure what their exact dimensions may originally have been.

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³ It is very much to be regretted that when Lieut. Cole had the opportunity he did not take a cast of this one instead of the eastern gateway. It is far more complete, and its sculptures more interesting.

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All these four gateways, or torans as they are properly called, were covered with the most elaborate sculptures both in front and 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 or legend of Buddha,¹ but nowhere is he represented in the conventional forms either standing or seated cross-legged, which afterwards became universal. In addition to these are scenes from the jâtakas or legends, narrating events or actions that took place during the five hundred births through which Sâkyamuni had passed before he became so purified as to reach perfect Buddhahood. One of these, the Wessantara, or “alms-giving Jâtaka,” 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 Sinhalese and Pâli books at the present day. Besides these legendary scenes, the worship of trees is represented at least seventy-six times; of dâgabas or relic shrines, thirty-eight times; of the chakra, or wheel, the emblem of Dharma — the law — ten times; and of Srî, the goddess of fortune, who afterwards, in the Hindû Pantheon, became Lakshmî the consort of Vishnu, ten times. The Triratna or trident emblem which crowns the gateways may, and I am inclined to believe does, represent the Buddhist creed. On the left-hand pillar of the north gateway it crowns a pillar, hung with wreaths and emblems, at the bottom of which are the sacred feet (Woodcut No. 39) :—the whole looking like a mystic emblem of a divinity, it was forbidden to represent under a human form. The corresponding face of the opposite pillar is adorned with architectural scrolls, wholly without any esoteric meaning so far as can be detected, but of great beauty of design (Woodcut No. 40).

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¹ See Grünwedel’s ‘Buddhist Art in India,’ Eng. transl., pp. 58-74.

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Other sculptures represent sieges and fighting, and consequent triumphs. Others portray men and women eating and drinking and making love, and otherwise occupied, in a manner as unlike anything we have been accustomed to connect with Buddhism as can well be imagined. (Be this as it may, the sculptures of these gateways form a perfect picture Bible of Buddhism as it existed in India in the 2nd century before the Christian Era, and as such are as important historically as they are interesting artistically.²)

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² For details of these sculptures and references, the reader must be referred to ‘Tree and Serpent Worship,’ where a great number of them are represented and described in great detail. Sculptures do not, strictly speaking, belong to this work, and, except for historical purposes, are not generally alluded to. The sculptures were all photographed to scale some years ago by Mr. H. Cousens of the Archæological Survey, but as yet there is no prospect of their publication. — ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ 1902, pp. 29-45.

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The small tope (No. 3) on the same platform, and about 40 yards north-north-east from the great tope at Sânchi, was surrounded by a rail which has now almost entirely disappeared. It had, however, at least one toran, the pillars and one beam of which were still standing twenty years ago, when the upper two beams were also pieced together and replaced. It is only about half the size of those of the great tope, measuring about 17 ft. to the top of the upper beam, and 13 ft. across its lower beam. It is apparently somewhat more modern than the great gateways, and its sculptures may have reference to the acts of Sâriputra and Moggalâna, whose relics, as above mentioned, were deposited in it.

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39. Bas-relief on left-hand Pillar, Northern Gateway.

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40. Ornament on right-hand Pillar, Northern Gateway.

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This tope was only 40 ft. in diameter, which is about the same dimension as No. 2 Tope, containing the relics of some of the apostles who took part in the third convocation under Asoka, and afterwards in the diffusion of the Buddhist religion in the countries bordering on India.

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As above pointed out, the rails at Bodh-Gayâ and Bharaut afford a similar picture of Buddhism at a time perhaps a century earlier. The difference is not striking, but on a close examination it is evident that the art, if not also the morals, had degenerated during the interval. There is a precision and a sharpness about the Bharaut sculptures which is not found here, and drinking and love-making do not occur in what remains of the sculptures—they do, however, occur at Bodh-Gayâ—to anything like the extent they do at Sânchi. There is no instance at Bharaut of any figure entirely nude; at Sânchi apparent nudity among the females is rather the rule than the exception. (The objects of worship are nearly the same in both instances, but are better expressed in the earlier than in the later examples.) We may, however, make some allowance for differences of material and race or locality—possibly also to peculiarities in the different sects for which the two monuments were executed.¹ The Mathurâ sculptures may suggest that the Digambara Jains regarded female as well as male nudity as a mark of sanctity.

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¹ The difference of style may be compared with that which prevails among Musalmân monuments in different parts of India in the 15th and 16th centuries.

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Before leaving these torans, it may be well to draw attention again to the fact of their being, even more evidently than the rails, so little removed from the wooden originals out of which they were elaborated. No one can look at them, however carelessly, without perceiving that their forms are such as a carpenter would imagine, and could construct, but which could not be invented by any process of stone or brick masonry with which we are familiar. The real wonder is that, when the new fashion was introduced of repeating in stone what had previously been executed only in wood, any one had the hardihood to attempt such an erection in stone; and still more wonderful is it that, having been done, three of them should have stood during eighteen centuries, till one was knocked down by some clumsy Englishmen, and that only one—probably the earliest, and consequently the slightest and most wooden—should have fallen from natural causes.

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Although these Sânchi torans are not the earliest specimens of their class executed wholly in stone, neither are they the last. We have, it is true, no means of knowing whether those represented at Amarâvatî² were in stone or in wood, but, from their different appearances, some of them most probably were in the more permanent material. At all events, in China and Japan their descendants are counted by thousands. The "p'ai-lus" in the former country, and the "tori-is" in the latter, are copies more or less correct of these Sânchi gateways, and like their Indian prototypes are sometimes in stone, sometimes in wood and frequently compounded of both materials, in varying proportions. What is still more curious, a toran with five bars was erected in front of the Temple at Jerusalem, to bear the sacred golden vine. It, however, was partly in wood, partly in stone, and was erected to replace one that adorned Solomon’s Temple, which was wholly in bronze, and supported by the celebrated pillars Jachin and Boaz.¹

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² They must certainly have been very common in India, for, though only one representation of them has been detected among the sculptures at Sânchi ('Tree and Serpent Worship,' plate 27, fig. 2), at least ten representations of them are found at Amarâvatî, plates 59 (fig. 2), 60 (fig. 1), 63 (fig. 3), 64 (fig. 1) 69, 83 (fig. 2), 85 (figs. 1 and 2), 96 (fig. 3), 98 (fig. 2), and no doubt many more may yet be found. In Cave 10 at Ajantâ, containing the oldest paintings there, two were represented on the left wall. 'Notes on the Bauddha Rock-Temples of Ajanta,' p. 51, and plate 11.

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¹ ‘Tree and Serpent Worship,’ Appendix I. p. 270; ‘Temples of the Jews,’ pp. 152, 155.

Amarâvatî.

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Although the rail at Bharaut is the most interesting and important in India in an historical sense, it is far from being equal to that at Amarâvatî, either in elaboration or in artistic merit. Indeed, in these respects, the Amarâvatî rail is probably the most remarkable monument in India. In the first place, it is more than twice the dimensions of the rail at Bharaut, the great rail being 192 ft. in diameter, the base 162½ ft.,² or almost exactly twice the dimensions of that at Bharaut; between these two was the procession-path—13 ft. wide. The inner wall of sculptures was the facing of the base that supported the platform on which the dome stood. Externally, the total height of the great rail was about 14 ft.; internally, it was 2 ft. less, while the sculptured facing of the base was, perhaps, only 6 ft. in height, with a frieze and cornice over it.

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² From some misunderstanding of the first accounts, it was supposed the Amarâvatî stûpa had an inner rail; this was a mistake—the inner circle of sculptures was the facing of the base of the stûpa.

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The external appearance of the great rail may be judged of from the annexed woodcut (No. 41), representing a small section of it. The lower part, or plinth, was ornamented by a frieze of animals and boys or dwarfs, generally in ludicrous and comic attitudes. The pillars, as usual, were rectangular with the corners splayed off, ornamented with full discs in the centre, and half discs top and bottom, between which were figure sculptures of more or less importance. On the three rail-bars were full discs, all most elaborately carved, and all different. Above runs the usual undulating roll moulding, which was universal in all ages,³ but is here richly interspersed with figures and emblems. The inside of the rail was very much more richly ornamented than the outside shown in the woodcut. All the central range of discs, both on the pillars and on the rails, were carved with figured

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³ In Burma at the present day a roll precisely similar to this, formed of coloured muslin, distended by light bamboo hoops, is borne on men’s shoulders in the same manner as shown here, on each side of the procession that accompanies a high priest or other ecclesiastical dignitary to the grave.

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External Elevation of Great Rail at Amarâvatî.

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subjects, generally of very great elaboration and beauty of detail; and the coping was one continuous bas-relief upwards of 600 ft. in length. At the returns of the gateways another system was adopted, as shown in next woodcut (No. 42). The pillars being narrower, and the discs smaller, the principal sculpture was on the intermediate space: in this instance a king on his throne receives a messenger, while his army in front defends the walls; lower down the infantry, cavalry, and elephants sally forth in battle array, while one of the enemy sues for peace, which is probably the information being communicated to the king.

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The sculptured base, though, perhaps, lower than the rail, was even more richly ornamented than it, generally with figures of dâgabas — apparently twelve in each quadrant —

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most elaborately carved with scenes from the life of Buddha or from the legends. One of these dâgabas has already been given (Woodcut No. 20, page 81).¹ Between these were pillars and slabs ornamented, either as shown in Woodcuts Nos. 43 and 44, or with other Buddhist

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¹ For other examples, see ‘Amarâvatî and Jaggayyapeta Stûpas,’ plates i., xxxi. figs. 6, 7, and xxxiii. xxxix.

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42. Angle pillar at Amarâvatî.

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43. Slab from Base of the Stûpa, Amarâvatî.

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designs or emblems, but all as rich, at least, as these; whilst over these slabs was an architrave, carved like ivory, with scenes from the life of Buddha; the whole making up a series of pictures of Buddhism, as it was understood in the 1st and 2nd centuries, unsurpassed by anything now known to exist in India. The slab represented in Woodcut No. 43 (p. 121), though now much ruined, is interesting as showing the three great objects of Buddhist worship at once. At the top is the dâgaba with its rail, but with the five-headed Nâga in the place usually occupied by Buddha. In the central compartment is the chakra or wheel, now generally acknowledged to be the emblem of Dharma, the second member of the Buddhist Triad; below that the tree, possibly representing the Sangha or the congregation; and in front of all a throne, on which is placed what I believe to be a relic, wrapt up in a silken cloth.

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44. Dâgaba (from a Slab), Amarâvatî.

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This combination is repeated again and again in the earlier of these sculptures, and may be almost designated as the shorter Buddhist catechism, or rather the creed — Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. The last woodcut (No. 44) is also interesting, as showing, besides the three emblems, the form of pillars with double animal capitals so common in structures of this and an earlier period.

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The age of this monument can hardly be fixed with certainty; the sculptures on the rail and on some of the slabs that probably belonged to the stûpa itself, are sufficiently analogous in general style to those left of the Bharaut stûpa to suggest that they may be of scarcely more than a century later. (It must have been commenced at least before figures of Buddha were represented in sculpture—the relic casket and pair of footmarks being the symbols employed to represent him.) But among the figures that appear to have belonged to the base of the stûpa, there are many that can hardly be earlier than the beginning of the 2nd century A.D. From an inscription of the reign of Pulumâvi Vasishthîputra, it would seem that the stûpa—called a "great châitya"—belonged to the Chaitika or Pûrvasaila school, and must have undergone a great restoration about A.D. 150;¹ but we find pieces of very ancient sculpture, some of which have been reworked on the back to fit into new places; and at least one inscription was found that is engraved in pure Maurya characters of about B.C. 200. It seems probable then that an early stûpa existed here, of which only a few archaic sculptures have survived. This was restored—perhaps reconstructed and much enlarged—a century or more B.C., the sculptures of the rail representing the veneration of relics, the Triratna, domestic and other scenes, etc., but without the figure of Buddha. Then, in the 2nd century A.D., the stûpa itself seems to have been restored when the sculptures wainscotting its base were added, picturing scenes from the legend of Buddha.²

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¹ There is no record of the positions of the sculptures belonging to the basement; and the Government excavation of the whole area in 1881 destroyed the last chance of any further determination.

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² For a full account of the Amarâvatî stûpa, see the volume of the Archæological Survey, 'The Buddhist Stûpas of Amarâvatî and Jaggayyapeta,' 1887.

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When Hiuen Tsiang visited this place in the year 639 it had already been deserted for more than a century, but he speaks of its magnificence and the beauty of its site in more glowing terms than he applies to almost any other monument in India. Among other expressions, he uses one not easily understood at first sight, for he says, "it was ornamented with all the magnificence of the palaces of Baktria"³ (Tahia). Now, however, that we know what the native art of India was from the sculptures at Bharaut and Sânchi, and as we also know nearly what the art of Baktria was from those dug up near Peshâwar, especially at Jamâlgarhi, we see at once that it was by a marriage of these two arts that the Amarâvatî school of sculpture was produced, but with a stronger classical influence than anything of its kind found elsewhere in India.⁴

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³ 'Histoire de Hiouen Thsang traduite par Julien,' vol. i. p. 188; Beal, 'Life of Hiuen Tsiang,' pp. 136f.

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⁴ In some of the technical details of the sculptures, notably in the treatment of drapery, the influence of classic art is perceptible; and it is perhaps here alone in India Proper that this foreign impress is seen. The age of the later sculptures nearly coinciding with the same influence in Gandhâra may account for this. Conf. Dr. Le Bon, 'Les Monuments de l'Inde,' p. 14.

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With this, which is certainly the most splendid specimen of its class, we must conclude our history of Buddhist rails. No later example is known to exist; and the Gandhâra topes, which generally seem to be of this age or later, have all their rails attached to their sides in the shape of a row of pilasters. If they had any figured illustrations, they were either in the form of paintings on plaster on the panels or rilievos between the pilasters; for we cannot understand any Buddhist monument existing anywhere, without the jâtakas or legends being portrayed on its walls in some shape or other.

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At Sârnâth all reminiscences of a rail had disappeared, and a new mode of ornamentation introduced, which bore no resemblance to anything found on the earlier topes.

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Although, therefore, our history of the rails may finish about A.D. 200, it by no means follows that examples may not yet be brought to light belonging to the five centuries that elapsed between that date and the age of Asoka. As they all certainly were sculptured to a greater or less extent, when they are examined and published, we may hope to have an ancient pictorial history of India for those ages nearly as complete as that possessed by any other country in the world. At present, however, we only know of ten or twelve examples, but they are so easily thrown down and buried that we may hope to find more whenever they are looked for, and from them to learn the whole story of Buddhist art.

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NOTE.—The central crowning ornament in Woodcut No. 38, page 115, is a chakra or wheel in the centre, with Triratna emblems right and left. These triratna symbols represent the three "Jewels" of Buddhism, — Buddha, the Dharma and Sangha. On the upper beam five dâgabas and two trees are worshipped; on the intermediate blocks, Srî and a chakra; on the middle beam are seven sacred trees, with altars; on the intermediate blocks, Srî and the chakra again. The lower beam is wholly occupied by the early scenes in the Wessantara jâtaka, which is continued in the rear. The subjects on the pillars have been described in 'Tree and Serpent Worship,' but are on too small a scale to be distinguishable in the woodcut. See also Grünwedel's 'Buddhist Art in India,' Eng. trans., pp 19, 74, 145. The Triratna is also a Jaina symbol.

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45. Triratna Emblem. (From a sculpture at Amarâvatî.) 46. Triratna Symbol from Sânchi.