Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/114

112 gateways, 34 feet in height, covered with a profusion of relief sculptures_illustrating the Buddhist scriptures. Casts of the eastern gateway now at South Kensington and in several other museums can be examined conveniently at leisure. The existing stone stûpa. and contemporary plain railing are about a century later than Asoka, whose original brick stûpa was enclosed in the enlarged building. The sculptured gateways date from about 50 to the Christian era. No trace has been found of any structure prior to the reign of Asoka, and the details of the succession of the various ancient ﬂoors permit of little doubt that the earliest building on the site was erected by Asoka. Near the southern gateway fragments survive of a ﬁnely designed Asoka pillar estimated to have stood about forty-two feet in height. The mutilated lions which once crowned the summit are admirable examples of Asokan art, comparable in merit with the Sârnâth capital. Both compositions may be the work of one artist. The damaged inscription at Sânchi is a replica of the more perfect text of Minor Pillar Edict I at Sârnâth. Inasmuch as all the Minor A Pillar Edicts date from a late period of the reign and the Sânchi pillar seems to be contemporary with the original stûpa, we may assign that building also to the last ten years of Asoka's rule. Other stûpas in the neighbourhood are more or less alike in form Some have yielded interesting inscribed relic caskets, as mentioned above in Chapter I.