Buddhist India c19.36

c19.36

It is true that no building erected by Asoka remains intact above ground, but an inscription of his has been found at Sānchi, and it is the unanimous opinion of scholars that he built the first temple at Bodh Gayā. Sānchi, the old name of which is Chetiya Giri (the Hill with the Shrine upon it), must have been a famous place before Asoka went to Ujjeni. There are no less than eleven topes on the plateau at the top of the hill. Some of them were opened in 1822 and the rest in 1851. At the second excavation one of the smaller ones was found to contain part of the ashes from the funeral pyres of Sāriputta and Moggallāna, two of the Buddha's principal disciples. The village Vedisa, where Asoka made the acquaintance of his first wife, lies close by, and the tops of other hills in the neighbourhood are also crowned with stūpas.