DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0096
( MAT. ITT.
GANDHARA TOPES.
73
17 miles from Sonari to Andher. To these must lie added some fifteen
or twenty examples, found at Manikvala or in its neighbourhood, and
it is probable about the same number still exist undescribed, making
altogether perhaps 100 stupas in this province.
Notwithstanding this wealth of examples, we miss one, which
was probably the finest of all. When Fa Hian passed through the
province in a.i>. 400, he describes the dagoba which King Kanishka
had erected at Peshawur as "more than 470 ft. in height, and decorated
with every sort of precious substance, so that all who passed by,
and saw the exquisite beauty and graceful proportions of the tower
and the temple attached to it, exclaimed in delight that it was
incomparable for beauty ; " and he adds, " Tradition says this was the
highest tower in Janibudwipa." 1 When Hiouen Thsang passed that
way more than two hundred years afterwards, he reports the tower
as having been 400 ft. high, but it was then ruined—"the part
that remained, a li and a half in circumference (1500 ft.) and lfiO ft.
high ; " and he adds, in twenty-five stages of the tower there were a
"ho"—10 bushels of relics of Buddha.- No trace of this monument
now exists.
These north-western topes are BO important for our history, and
all have so much that is common among them, and are distinguished
by so many characteristics from those of India Proper, that it would
be extremely convenient if we could find some term which would
describe them without involving either a theory or a geographical
error. The term Afghanistan topes, by which they are generally
designated, is too modem, and has the defect of not including
Peshawur and the western Punjab. "Ariana." as defined by Pro-
fessor Wilson, describes very nearly the correct limits of the province ;
for, though it includes Bactria and the valley of the Upper Oxus,
where no topes have yet been found, we know from the Chinese
Pilgrims that in the 5th and 7th centuries these countries, as far
as Khoten, were intensely Buddhist, and monuments must exist,
and will, no doubt, be found when looked for. The name, however,
has the defect that it seems to imply the existence in that region
of an Aryan people, and consequently an Aryan religion. At the
time to which he was referring, that was no doubt the case, and
therefore from the Professor's point of view the name was correctly
applied.
When the Sanscrit-speaking races first broke op from their
original settlements in the valley of the Oxus, they passed through
the valley of the Cabal river on their way to India, and lingered, in
all probability, both there and in the Punjab before reaching their
first permanent position on the Saraswati—the true "Arya Varta"—
1 lical's ' Fa Hian,' p. 35. 2 ' Vie et YoTagp« do Himu'ii Tlisang,' vol. i. p. 83.
GANDHARA TOPES.
73
17 miles from Sonari to Andher. To these must lie added some fifteen
or twenty examples, found at Manikvala or in its neighbourhood, and
it is probable about the same number still exist undescribed, making
altogether perhaps 100 stupas in this province.
Notwithstanding this wealth of examples, we miss one, which
was probably the finest of all. When Fa Hian passed through the
province in a.i>. 400, he describes the dagoba which King Kanishka
had erected at Peshawur as "more than 470 ft. in height, and decorated
with every sort of precious substance, so that all who passed by,
and saw the exquisite beauty and graceful proportions of the tower
and the temple attached to it, exclaimed in delight that it was
incomparable for beauty ; " and he adds, " Tradition says this was the
highest tower in Janibudwipa." 1 When Hiouen Thsang passed that
way more than two hundred years afterwards, he reports the tower
as having been 400 ft. high, but it was then ruined—"the part
that remained, a li and a half in circumference (1500 ft.) and lfiO ft.
high ; " and he adds, in twenty-five stages of the tower there were a
"ho"—10 bushels of relics of Buddha.- No trace of this monument
now exists.
These north-western topes are BO important for our history, and
all have so much that is common among them, and are distinguished
by so many characteristics from those of India Proper, that it would
be extremely convenient if we could find some term which would
describe them without involving either a theory or a geographical
error. The term Afghanistan topes, by which they are generally
designated, is too modem, and has the defect of not including
Peshawur and the western Punjab. "Ariana." as defined by Pro-
fessor Wilson, describes very nearly the correct limits of the province ;
for, though it includes Bactria and the valley of the Upper Oxus,
where no topes have yet been found, we know from the Chinese
Pilgrims that in the 5th and 7th centuries these countries, as far
as Khoten, were intensely Buddhist, and monuments must exist,
and will, no doubt, be found when looked for. The name, however,
has the defect that it seems to imply the existence in that region
of an Aryan people, and consequently an Aryan religion. At the
time to which he was referring, that was no doubt the case, and
therefore from the Professor's point of view the name was correctly
applied.
When the Sanscrit-speaking races first broke op from their
original settlements in the valley of the Oxus, they passed through
the valley of the Cabal river on their way to India, and lingered, in
all probability, both there and in the Punjab before reaching their
first permanent position on the Saraswati—the true "Arya Varta"—
1 lical's ' Fa Hian,' p. 35. 2 ' Vie et YoTagp« do Himu'ii Tlisang,' vol. i. p. 83.