Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/150

n6 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I. Buddha, 1 but nowhere is he represented in the conventional forms either standing or seated cross-legged, which afterwards became universal. In addition to these are scenes from the jatakas or legends, narrating events or actions that took place during the five hundred births through which Sakyamuni had passed before he became so purified as to reach perfect Buddha- hood. One of these, the Wessantara, or "alms-giving Jataka," occupies the whole of the lower beam of the northern gateway, and reproduces all the events of that wonderful tale, exactly as it is narrated in Sinhalese and Pali books at the present day. Besides these legendary scenes, the worship of trees is repre- sented at least seventy-six times ; of dagabas or relic shrines, thirty-eight times ; of the chakra, or wheel, the emblem of Dharma the law ten times ; and of Sri, the goddess of fortune, who afterwards, in the Hindu Pantheon, became Lakshmi the consort of Vishnu, ten times. The Triratna or trident emblem which crowns the gateways may, and I am inclined to believe does, represent the Buddhist creed. On the left-hand pillar of the north gateway it crowns a pillar, hung with wreaths and emblems, at the bottom of which are the sacred feet (Woodcut No. 39) : the whole looking like a mystic emblem of a divinity, it was forbidden to represent under a human form. The corresponding face of the opposite pillar is adorned with architectural scrolls, wholly without any esoteric meaning so far as can be detected, but of great beauty of design (Woodcut No. 40). Other sculptures represent sieges and fighting, and con- sequent triumphs. Others portray men and women eating and drinking and making love, and otherwise occupied, in a manner as unlike anything we have been accustomed to connect with Buddhism as can well be imagined. Be this as it may, the sculptures of these gateways form a perfect picture Bible of Buddhism as it existed in India in the 2nd century before the Christian Era, and as such are as important historically as they are interesting artistically. 2 The small tope (No. 3) on the same platform, and about 40 yards north-north-east from the great tope at Sanchi, was surrounded by a rail which has now almost entirely disappeared. It had, however, at least one toran, the pillars and one beam of 1 See Griinwedel's ' Buddhist Art in India,' Eng. transl., pp. 58-74. 2 For details of these sculptures and references, the reader must be referred to ' Tree and Serpent Worship,' where a great number of them are represented and described in great detail. Sculptures do not, strictly speaking, belong to this work, and, except for historical purposes, are not generally alluded to. The sculptures were all photographed to scale some years ago by Mr. H. Cousens of the Archaeological Survey, but as yet there is no prospect of their publication. 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' 1902, pp. 29-45.