Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/179

 PILLAKS, KOCKS, AND CAVES 145 some of which are fifty feet in height and about fifty tons in weight, are not only worthy monuments of his magnificence, but also of the high- est interest as the earliest known exam- ples of the Indian stone-cutter's art in architectural forms. The style is Per- sian rather than Greek, and the mechani- cal execution is perfect. The caves, with highly polished walls, excavated in the intensely hard quartzose gneiss of the Barabar hills near Gaya by order of Asoka, for the use of the Ajivika ascetics, a penitential order closely connected with the Jains, recall Egyptian work by the mastery displayed over intractable material. The most interesting monuments of Asoka are his famous inscriptions, more than thirty in number, incised upon rocks, boulders, cave walls, and pillars, which supply the only safe foundation for the history of his reign, and must be briefly described before I can enter upon the dis- cussion of his doctrine and policy. The more important documents, which ex- pound fully both his principles of govern- ment and his system of practical ethics, supply many interesting autobiographi- cal details. The shorter documents in- clude dedications, brief commemorative Bas-relief on Left-hand Pillar, Northern Gateway of the Rail at Sanchi.