The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c11.16

c11.16

(¹) The difference between the steps at the bottom and those at the top is so great that from the first to the second gallery, for example, thirteen steps only go back m. 3,56 in rising m. 3.84, whilst the seven steps which lead to the first circular gallery, the sixth of the whole, have a depth of m. 3,40 in rising m. 1,80; Wilsen (ap. LEEMANS, p. 576) asks whether we must not, in the steepness of the first steps, see a symbol, suggested to the minds of the faithful by the intermediary of their legs, of the difficulty of attaining to Nirvâna! We conjecture, at least, that the impossibility of imposing upon them still steeper ones is one of the reasons which decided the architect not to conform in all things to the ancient Indian formula of the « air bubble on water », and made him recoil before the idea of assigning to his monument the form of a complete hemisphere.