Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/113

 CHAP. III. AMARAVATI. 81 mode in which a Buddhist stupa was ornamented in the ist or 2nd century, at which time the style seems to have reached its highest point of elaboration, in India at least. 1 20. Re sentation of a Stupa from the Rail at Amaravati. (From a bas-relief in the British Museum.) In the Andhra country or, at least, in the districts adjoining the deltas of the Krishna and Godavan rivers Buddhism must 1 The recent discovery of the base of a stupa, about 1 1 ft. in diameter, outside where the south gate of the great Amara- vati stupa was, has revealed the style in which the base or drum of these eastern stupas was decorated by marble slabs VOL. I. richly carved with representations of stupas, placed at intervals, and with other sculptures between. There was no "inner rail" around the large stupa, as was at one time assumed.