Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c15.183

c15.183

The oldest *Stūpa* so far discovered is that found in ruins at Piprahwa on the Nepal border. It was built in brick round an urn bearing the following inscription: "This shrine for relics of the Buddha, the August One, is the pious foundation (*sukriti*) of the Sākyas, His brethren, in association with their sisters, their children, and their wives." The *Stūpa* was built as a solid cupola or domed mass of brickwork round and on a massive stone coffer. The bricks were huge slabs measuring up to 16×11×3 inches. Vincent Smith thus describes the *Stūpa*: "The masonry of the *Stūpa* is excellent of its kind, well and truly laid; the great sandstone coffer could not be better made; and the ornaments of gold, silver, coral, crystal, and precious stones which were deposited in honour of the holy relics display a high degree of skill in the arts of the lapidary and goldsmith” [*Imperial Gazetteer*, II. 102-3].