Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/114

82 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I. have had a very strong hold in early times. This is abundantly evidenced by the numbers of their remains in the area. A list of the mounds or " dibbas " as they are called indicates about three hundred in the Kistna district alone ; probably most of these cover ancient remains, and, as excavation has shown, many of them were stupas. 1 How many may exist in neighbouring districts we do not yet know. Unfortunately many, including the largest of these, containing the most important remains, have been used as quarries for brick and marble not by natives only but by Government Public Works engineers, the record of whose vandalism in utilising the materials is most deplorable. 2 The stupa at Bhattiprolu, about 6 miles north of Repalle, was for long one of the best preserved in the district presenting a circular mound or dome of 40 ft. or more in height, though ruined at the top, a marble pillar 1 5 ft. high standing erect beside it, and with clear indications of the procession-path round it. 3 This was destroyed, about 1 870 ; 4 what was left of it, on being surveyed in 1892, showed that the dome had been about 132 ft. in diameter, while the basement was of about 148 ft, the procession-path had been 8 ft. 4 in. wide and fenced on the outside by a marble rail of which the bases of six piers were found in situ. Towards each of the cardinal points the base projected about 2 ft. 4 in., with a straight front, probably for the support of the five monoliths represented on all the sculptured stupas from Amaravati, and as was the case at Jaggayyapeta. 5 The sculptures of the latter stupa, indeed, bear a close resemblance in their archaic character, to the only two fragments recovered here, and, so far as they go, indicate that this stupa may have been of considerably earlier date than even the great rail at Amaravati. We might suppose also that the sculptures would be confined chiefly to the projecting facades, whilst the rest of the basement was faced with plain slabs and pilasters. At least one relic casket had been found by the first excavators at a considerable height above the ground level ; but the enclosing slabs, whether inscribed or not, were broken and cast aside, and the casket was smashed on the voyage to England and thrown away. During the survey, Mr. Rea dis- covered three more relic boxes at a lower level, and bearing 1 ' Madras Government Orders,' No. 462 of 2gth May 1889. 2 See e.g. ' Madras Government Orders,' No. 467, 30th April 1888, p. 15. 3 'Indian Antiquary,' vol. i. pp. 153, 348 374 > ' Madras Journal of Literature and Science,' vol. xix. p. 225 ; Sewell's ' Topographical Lists of Antiquarian Remains,' pp. 77-78. 4 Ante, p. 34, note 3. 5 ' The Buddhist Stupas of Amaravati and Jaggayyapeta,' p. lio. These pro- jecting pedestals with their five Aryaka (worshipful) columns, may be analogous to the chapels for the Dhyani-Buddhas at the bases of the dagabas of Ceylon and of the chaityas of Nepal.