The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c33.28

v1.c33.28

These two *stūpas* with their richly carved *toraṇas* are not the only monuments of an early age on the hill-top of Sānchī. To the south-east of the Great *stūpa* is a lofty plinth of stone, approached by two broad stairways and surmounted by rows of heavy octagonal pillars, which once supported a superstructure of wood; the pillars bear inscriptions in early Brāhmī, probably of the first century B.C., but the plinth dates back to Çuṅga or Maurya times, and was originally rounded at its southern end, having served apparently as the base of an apsidal temple of wood, which perished by burning before the stone pillars were erected. Then, in the south-west part of the enclosure, there is another plinth of a similar type but square in plan; and on a lower spur of the same hill is another *stūpa* (Pl. XXI, 54), designed on the same lines as the Great *stūpa*, but without any *toraṇas* to adorn the entrances, and with this further difference, that its ground rail is lavishly decorated with sculptured panels and medallions. These reliefs present the same phenomenon, but in a more accentuated measure, that we observed in the railing of Buddh Gayā. A few, that is to say—and these are confined to the corner pillars of the entrance—are of a refined style and infused with a strongly classical feeling (Pl. XXI, 55, 56); but the majority, though remarkably decorative, and, indeed, better adapted to their purpose, are conspicuous for their crude, coarse workmanship (Pl. XXI, 57, 58). In this case, however, it is important to observe that the two classes of reliefs were not executed at one and the same time; for an examination of the rail shows that the whole of it was originally adorned with the more primitive kind of carvings, and that some of these were subsequently chiselled off in order to make way for the more finished reliefs.