History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c13.3

v1.c13.3

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.