and Babylonia, which was especially close in the six centuries from 1746 b.c.
The great stūpa at Sānchī is one of a group situated in the Bhopāl State a few miles from Bhilsā, near which stood the famous city of Vidisha,[1] the capital of Eastern Mālwā. It is built upon a hill which in pre-Buddhist times may have been the site of Aryan Vedic rites, which gave to it the odour of sanctity, for it is not known to be in any way connected with the life of Buddha. Many stūpas of the Aryan princes of Mālwā may have preceded that which was dedicated to the memory of the royal Monk of Kapilavastu. A Buddhist monastery was built upon the hill in Asoka's time, and enjoyed a share of the lavish state patronage which the great emperor bestowed upon the Sangha. When the Mauryan dynasty came to an end, about 185 b.c., and for many centuries after that time, Sānchī continued to be the chief seat of Buddhist learning in Mālwā, a university for the royal city of Vidisha, so that the monuments which remain on the hill illustrate the development of Indian art from about the middle of the third century b.c. to the twelfth century a.d.
The brick stūpa which Asoka, or his viceroy, built for the monks is not now visible, for in the last half of the second century b.c. it was covered by a casing of rubble and fine masonry. The diameter of the stūpa was thus increased to about 120 feet, and the height to about 54 feet, the hill itself providing the excellent sandstone used by the royal craftsmen. Two procession paths for circumambulation were built round the base of the dome; one at a high level which was approached by a double staircase on the southern side, and another at the ground level. Both of them, as
- ↑ The modern Besnagar.
