The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c33.29

v1.c33.29

To revert, however, to the gateways of the Great *stūpa*, in which the interest of Sānchī mainly resides. The earliest of them to be erected was the one at the south entrance, opposite to the steps by which the berm was approached; then followed, in chronological order, the northern, the eastern, and the western, their succession in each case being demonstrated by the style of their carvings and by the tectonic character of the extensions to the rail, which were made at the time that each was set up. All four gateways are of similar design—the work of carpenters rather than of masons—and the marvel is that erections of this kind, constructed on principles wholly unsuited to work in stone, have survived in such remarkable preservation for nearly two thousand years. Each gateway was composed of two square pillars surmounted by capitals, which in their turn supported a superstructure of three architraves with volute ends, ranged one above the other at intervals slightly in excess of their own height. The capitals were adorned with standing dwarfs or with the forefronts of lions or elephants set back to back in the Persepolitan fashion; and, springing from the same abacus and acting as supports to the projecting ends of the lowest architrave, were Caryatid figures of graceful and pleasing outline. Other images of men and women, horsemen, elephants, and lions were disposed between and above the architraves, while crowning and dominating all was the sacred wheel, so inseparably connected with Buddhism, flanked on either side by attendants and *triçūla* emblems. For the rest, both pillars and superstructure were elaborately enriched with bas-reliefs illustrative of the *Jātaka* legends or scenes from the life of the Buddha or important events in the subsequent history of the Buddhist religion. Besides which, there were representations of the sacred trees and *stūpas* symbolical of Çākyamuni and the preceding Buddhas; of real or fabulous beasts and birds; and many heraldic and floral devices of rich and varied conception (Pl. XXI, 59).