The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.s2.92

v2.c16.s2.92

**Deva Sabha** :—To the south-west of the temple there is a large, open, smooth piece of ground or terrace gently slopping towards the west, which bears the name of Deva Sabhā, or “the assembly of the gods.” It measures about one hundred and fifty feet across, and is coated with a thin sheet of turf. On the centre of this area is built a small square pillar having on each side, a figure of Buddha in bas-relief, and round it are placed a number of model Chaityas arranged in four rows, making four complete circles. The Chaityas are two and a half to three feet in height, with a cubic base and a pyramidal spire, having on each side of the base an image of Buddha. The style of these Chaityas is similar to that of such structures found in Buddha Gayā, but the images are standing and nude, and not seated and draped, as is usual in the last named place. Altogether there are between eighty and ninety of these models, some of which are brokan, and others lying prostrate. Probably there were a hundred of them when originally set up. Three small boulders set in a triangle and covered over by a slab of sandstone, forming a perfect dolmen, stand in a part of the inner circle. The ground under this Celtic altar is not raised, and there is no appearance of its having been raised over a grave, at least I had no opportunity of digging into it to ascertain the fact. The structure was obviously never intended to serve the purposes of a cist under a barrow; had it been originally buried under a mound, it would have been dispersed by a mere fraction of the labour which would have been required to remove the surrounding earth, and that labour would for certain have been brought to bear upon it long before the mound would be completely demolished. It may be noted that, whatever truth there may be in the subterranean theory regarding megalithic dolmens, the microlithic structures of the kind in India, have nowhere been intended for a subterranean locale. They have always been built above ground with the express object of being preserved open and exposed to view.⁴¹ The dolmen of the Deva Sabhā most probably covers the sepulture of some non-Aryan chief or Priest. Small and insignificant as the circles above described are, they are interesting as showing the relation they bear to the more pretentious Buddhist rails of Sān̄chī, Amarāvatī and Buddha Gayā, the lofty staves of the circles round the Tope of Anurādhāpur in Ceylon, and the megalithic circles of Stonehenge and other Druidical remains in Europe. The dolmen is also worthy of notice, as the like of it has, I believe, been nowhere seen in the midst of a Buddhist tope. Though topes are doubtless no other than the old Tamulian or Turanian barrows, which are common enough over the graves of some of the Tamulian races in India, yet since their adoption by the Buddhist, they have ceased to be exclusively Tamulian, and it would be misleading to take a tope to be a barrow pure and simple. The name of Deva Sabhā given to this place is of course a modern one, due to the anxiety of the Hindus to appropriate everything ancient to their faith.