A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c11.s3.13

c11.s3.13

Buddhists consider the multiplication of *stūpas* in any material to be a work of high merit, and accordingly the ancient Indian worshippers were in the habit of erecting in the precincts of sacred spots multitudes of minor *stūpas*, ranging in size from considerable masonry buildings to tiny models. The drum of such a votive *stūpa*, eleven feet in diameter, was disclosed at Amarāvatī by recent supplementary excavations, and a panel of its decoration is reproduced in Fig. 101. It will be observed that sundry details differ from those on the larger slab from the great *stūpa* and that the carving is slightly less crowded. The standing man and woman at the base are natural and well executed. The lions, as usual at Amarāvatī, are stiffly and conventionally designed. The whole composition, regarded as a display of skilled craftsmanship rather than as fine art, deserves high praise.¹