A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c9.s2.51

c9.s2.51

‘Two massive square pillars, one on either side, 14 feet high, forming as it were the gate-posts, support an ornamental superstructure of three slightly arched stone beams or architraves placed horizontally, one above the other, with spaces between them. The topmost beam of each gate was surmounted by the sacred wheel flanked by attendants and the *triśūla* emblem.

The faces, back and front, of the beams and pillars are crowded with panels of sculpture in bas-relief representing scenes in the life of Buddha, domestic and silvan scenes, processions, sieges, adoration of trees and *topes*, and groups of ordinary and extraordinary animals, among which are winged bulls and lions of a Persepolitan type and horned animals with human faces.’¹