DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0090
Chap. 111.
SAUNA 'I'll TOPE.
67
his long residence there. It is situated in the Deer Park, where he
took up his residence with his five disciples when he first removed
from Gaya on attaining Buddhahood, and commencing his mission
as a teacher. What act it commemorates we shall probably never
know, as there are several mounds in the neighbourhood, and the
descriptions of the Chinese Pilgrims are not sufficiently precise to
enable us now to discriminate between them.
The building consists of a stone basement, 93 ft. in diameter, and
solidly built, the stones being clamped together with iron to the
height of 4:! ft. Above that it is in brickwork, rising to a height of
Mil ft. above the surrounding ruins, and 128 ft. above the plain.1
Externally the lower part is relieved by eight projecting faces, each
21 ft. 6 in. wide, and 15 ft. apart. In each is a small niche, intended
apparently to contain a seated figure of Buddha, and below them,
encircling the monument, is a band of sculptured ornament of the
most exquisite beauty. The central part consists—as will be seen by
the cut on the next page—of geometric patterns of great intricacy,
but combined with singular skill; and, above and below, foliage
equally well designed, and so much resembling that carved by Hindu
artists on the earliest Mahomedan mosques at Ajmir and Delhi, as to
make us feel sure they cannot be very distent in date.
The carvings round the niches and on the projections have been
left so unfinished—in some instances only outlined—that it is impos-
sible to guess what ultimate form it may have been intended to give
them. The upper part of the tower seems never to have been finished
at all, but from our knowledge of the Afghanistan topes we may sur-
mise that it was intended to encircle it with a range of pilasters, and
then some bold mouldings, before covering it with a hemispherical
dome.
In bis excavations, General Cunningham found, buried in the
solid masonry, at the depth of H>i ft. from the summit, a large stone
on which was engraved the usual Buddhist formula, "Ye dharmma
hetu," &c, in characters belonging to the 7th century, from which
he infers that the monument belongs to the 6th century. To me
it appears so extremely improbable that men should carefully en-
grave such a formula on a stone, and then bury it ten or twelve
feet in a mass of masonry which they must have hoped would endure
for ever, that I cannot accept the conclusion. It seems to me much
more probable that it may have belonged to some building which
this one was designed to supersede, or to have been the pedestal
of some statue which had been disused, but which from its age had
become venerable, and was consequently utilised to sanctify this
1 These dimensions and details are i logical Beports,' vol. i. p. 107, it
taken from Gen. Cunningham's ' Archive- scqq.
f 2
SAUNA 'I'll TOPE.
67
his long residence there. It is situated in the Deer Park, where he
took up his residence with his five disciples when he first removed
from Gaya on attaining Buddhahood, and commencing his mission
as a teacher. What act it commemorates we shall probably never
know, as there are several mounds in the neighbourhood, and the
descriptions of the Chinese Pilgrims are not sufficiently precise to
enable us now to discriminate between them.
The building consists of a stone basement, 93 ft. in diameter, and
solidly built, the stones being clamped together with iron to the
height of 4:! ft. Above that it is in brickwork, rising to a height of
Mil ft. above the surrounding ruins, and 128 ft. above the plain.1
Externally the lower part is relieved by eight projecting faces, each
21 ft. 6 in. wide, and 15 ft. apart. In each is a small niche, intended
apparently to contain a seated figure of Buddha, and below them,
encircling the monument, is a band of sculptured ornament of the
most exquisite beauty. The central part consists—as will be seen by
the cut on the next page—of geometric patterns of great intricacy,
but combined with singular skill; and, above and below, foliage
equally well designed, and so much resembling that carved by Hindu
artists on the earliest Mahomedan mosques at Ajmir and Delhi, as to
make us feel sure they cannot be very distent in date.
The carvings round the niches and on the projections have been
left so unfinished—in some instances only outlined—that it is impos-
sible to guess what ultimate form it may have been intended to give
them. The upper part of the tower seems never to have been finished
at all, but from our knowledge of the Afghanistan topes we may sur-
mise that it was intended to encircle it with a range of pilasters, and
then some bold mouldings, before covering it with a hemispherical
dome.
In bis excavations, General Cunningham found, buried in the
solid masonry, at the depth of H>i ft. from the summit, a large stone
on which was engraved the usual Buddhist formula, "Ye dharmma
hetu," &c, in characters belonging to the 7th century, from which
he infers that the monument belongs to the 6th century. To me
it appears so extremely improbable that men should carefully en-
grave such a formula on a stone, and then bury it ten or twelve
feet in a mass of masonry which they must have hoped would endure
for ever, that I cannot accept the conclusion. It seems to me much
more probable that it may have belonged to some building which
this one was designed to supersede, or to have been the pedestal
of some statue which had been disused, but which from its age had
become venerable, and was consequently utilised to sanctify this
1 These dimensions and details are i logical Beports,' vol. i. p. 107, it
taken from Gen. Cunningham's ' Archive- scqq.
f 2