The Buddhist Art of Gandhara: The Story of the Early School, its Birth, Growth and Decline c18.6

c18.6

Thirdly, apart from the materials of which they were made, there were signal differences in the essential character of the sculptures of the two Schools as well as in the design of the structures on which they were displayed. At the time when the Early School first took shape, the stūpa was still the dominant object of cult worship, as it had been in the Early Indian School, and in all important saṅghārāmas there was a large central stūpa encompassed by a number of relatively small votive stūpas. It was on the adornment of these latter monuments that the stone reliefs described in this book were for the most part employed, a few only serving as ex-voto offerings which were subsequently collected and housed in buildings set apart for the purpose, and a few also for the enrichment of minor architectural members such as the risers in the great stairway at Jamāl-Garhī. At the period of which we are speaking the small votive stūpa generally took a simple form, consisting of a square or circular base with a cylindrical drum and dome above, and one or more