The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c33.27

v1.c33.27

We come now to the famous gateways of Sānchī, the most perfect and most beautiful of all the monuments of the Early School. Four of these adorn the four entrances to the Great *stūpa* situated on the levelled summit of the hill; the fifth—a gateway of smaller proportions—is set in front of a subsidiary *stūpa* (No. III) close by, to the north-east. As it now stands, the Great *stūpa* (Pl. XX, 53) is about 54 feet high, excluding the rail and umbrella on its summit, and consists of an almost hemispherical dome set on a lofty plinth, the narrow berm between the two serving in old times as a processional path. This was not, however, its original form. The earliest structure, which was erected, apparently, by Açoka at the same time as the lion-crowned pillar near the South Gateway (p. 622 above), was of brick, crowned by a stone umbrella, and of not more than half the present dimensions. At that time, the floor laid around the *stūpa* and column by the workmen of Açoka was several feet below the present level. As years passed by, however, much *débris* collected above this floor, and over the *débris* another floor was laid, and then a third one, still higher up, and last of all—at least a century after the erection of the column—a stone pavement covering the whole hill-top. These facts have an intimate bearing on the history of this important monument; for, simultaneously with the laying of this final pavement, the *stūpa* itself was also enlarged to its existing size by the addition of a stone casing faced with concrete; on its summit was set a larger umbrella with a plain stone rail in a square around it, and encircling its base another rail equally plain but of more massive proportions. These works, and particularly the erection of the great ground rail, the pillars, bars, and copings of which were the gifts of many devotees, must have taken many decades to accomplish. Then came the construction of smaller decorated rails round the berm of the *stūpa* and flanking the steps by which it was ascended; and, finally and to crown all, the four gateways at the entrances between the quadrants of the ground rail, which can hardly be relegated to an earlier date than the last half century before the Christian era.