The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c6.13

c6.13

But it is well to form beforehand some idea of the monuments which these bas-reliefs adorned. The Buddhist sanctuary was preëminently the *stûpa*, that is the « tumulus », and its principal role was to cover up a deposit of relics. As we see it in India from the third century before our era, it was already a stereotyped edifice of brick or stone, which presupposed the art of the architect and utilized that of the sculptor. Its chief feature was a full hemispherical dome, usually raised on a terrace. This dome, which was called the egg (*aṇḍa*), supported a sort of kiosk (*harmika*), itself surmounted by one or several parasols, an emblem of which you know the honorific signification in the East. The whole was surrounded, like all sacred places in India, by a high barrier, at first of wood, then directly imitated in stone from its wooden prototype. This enclosure was flanked at the four cardinal points by monumental gates (*toraṇa*), with triple curved lintels of which we have fine examples at Sânchî (¹). On the most ancient specimens from the basin of the Ganges the decoration was strictly limited to the doorways and railing. At Barhut medallions were strewn over the upright pillars and crossbars of the latter, whilst all along the inner face of the coping further motifs were ensconced in the intervals of the undulations of a serpentine garland. You will recognize one or other alternative of this double provenance in all the reproductions which are about to defile before your eyes (Pl. V-VI).