Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/119

Rh pillars, inscribed and uninscribed, in great numbers and designed on a magnificent scale, regardless of cost. These pillars, many of which, more or less complete, are known, give us a better notion of the treasure, taste, and skill lavished upon Asoka's architectural works than do any of the other monuments. Hiuen Tsang mentions specifically sixteen of such pillars, four or five of which can be identified with existing monuments more or less convincingly; and, on the other hand, most of the extant pillars are not referred to by the Chinese pilgrim. The inscribed pillars now known number ten, of which only two can be positively identified with those noticed by him. Fortunately, two pillars—one uninscribed, the other bearing a copy of the first six Pillar Edicts—still stand in a condition practically perfect, and a detailed description of these will suffice to give the reader an adequate notion of the whole class. The discovery in 1904-5 of the magnificent capital of the Sârnâth pillar has revealed the ﬁnest example of Maurya art known to exist.

The perfect uninscribed pillar at Bakhirâ near Basâr, the ancient Vaisâli, in the Muzaffarpur District, N. Bihâr, is a monolith of ﬁne sandstone, highly polished for its whole length of 32 feet above the water level. A square pedestal with three steps is said to exist underwater. The shaft tapers uniformly from a diameter of 49-8 inches at the water level to 38.7 at the top. The principal member of the capital, 2 feet 10 inches in height, is bell-shaped in the