Page:Annual Report of the Archaeological Survey of India 1913-14.pdf/126



N the first part of my reports for the years 1912-13 and 1913-14 I gave a brief resumé of the results of the operations I had been conducting on behalf of Her Highness the Begam of Bhopal amid the Buddhist monuments of Sanchi, and at the same time I explained that a more comprehensive account of my investigations would be published in the form of a special monograph, which is to be issued both in English and in French and which is to include 128 photographure plates illustrating the whole series of these remarkable and richly decorated structures, together with dissertations on their iconography and epigraphy from the pens of the distinguished French savants, MM. E. Senart and A. Foucher. Every effort will be made to make this projected monograph as exhaustive as possible; but in a publication which covers so much ground it will, needless to say, be impossible to discuss each and every problem in such detail or to illustrate the operations carried out as fully as might be desired; nor will so costly a monograph be so accessible to students as the regular annual reports of my Department. For this reason I propose to devote the following pages to a separate and in some respects supplementary account of my work, illustrating it partly with photographs which would not otherwise be published, and noticing various features of it which cannot be dealt with in the forthcoming monograph. All questions relating to the history and topography of the site, to the iconography and artistic development of the sculptured reliefs or to the records carved upon the monuments will be reserved for the larger publication.

For descriptive purposes, the monuments on the hill of Sañchi may conveniently be divided into four groups. In the first of these are comprised the Great Stupa and the numerous other monuments near it on the central plateau; in the second. Stūpa 2 and a few unimportant remains situate on the terrace half way down the western slope of the hill; in the third, the early apsidal temple 40 and the medieval monasteries towards the southern part of the enclave; and in the fourth, the later monasteries and temples on the higher plateau to the east. The numbers by which the various monuments comprised in the first, third and fourth groups are designated in the plan on Plate I are not, it will be observed, arranged in regular sequence. The reason of this is that the numeration of the stūpas adopted by Sir Alexander Cunningham in