Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/116

 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I. found in the neighbourhood bearing a strong resemblance to those of Amaravati ; and some had been utilised to carve on them Hindu divinities. 1 It is not quite clear how this stupa was completed ; possibly there may have been more than one platform round the dome ; but we may suppose, as is most probable, that the massive brick wall formed the true basement or drum, faced with sculptures, and crowned by a procession - path round the dome, as at Sanchi ; this latter may have had a diameter of about 84 ft, rising as a hemisphere to about 54 ft. from the ground. 2 At many other places, both in the Godavari and Kistna districts, remains of other stupas, as also of rock-temples and other Buddhist antiquities, including some structural chaitya chapels, have been found testifying to the predominance of Buddhism in this province, and their prosperity for some centuries before and after the Christian Era. Jaina images are also met with evidencing their spread southwards from Orissa. 3 GANDHARA TOPES. The extreme paucity of examples retaining their archi- tectural form, in the valley of the Ganges, is, to some extent, compensated for by the existence of a very extensive range of examples in Afghanistan and the western Panjab. In his memoir of these topes, published by Professor Wilson, in his ' Ariana Antiqua,' Mr. Masson enumerates and describes, in more or less detail, some sixty examples, 4 or almost exactly the same number which General Cunningham described as existing in Bhopal. In this instance, however, they extend over a range of 200 miles, from Kabul to the Indus, instead of only 1 6 or 17 miles from Sonari to Andher. To these must be added some fifteen or twenty examples, found at Manikyala 1 One slab had represented a fine stupa, with Buddha, having a halo about his head, as the central figure, and with the usual five stelae above ; another, represented a Bodhi tree, under which is a throne on which lie two round objects like cushions (perhaps relics), whilst, curiously enough, the figures at each side are not the usual worshippers, but Mara and his hosts of Marakayakas. Photographs of such sculptures would be preferable to pen and ink drawings. Rea, loc. cit. plates 27 and 28. 2 Mr Rea, loc. cit., pp. 33-41, has pro- posed a somewhat fanciful theory of the construction of this stupa. 3 Since the publication of the volume on the Amaravati and Jaggayyapeta stupas in 1886, the sole addition has been Mr. Rea's report on the excavation of three sites Bhattiprolu, Ghantajala, and Gudivada. Detailed accounts of the rock-temples at Guntupalle or Jilligera- gudem, and of the structural chaityas at Chezarla, Vidyadharapuram, .Sankaram, etc., illustrated with photographs and plans, would be of great archaeological importance. See below, page 167. tween topes, of which portions of the masonry were visible, and "mounds" that, in most instances, cover the remains of stupas, such as the Ahin-posh Stupa, and in some cases at least, they cover whole groups of stupas.
 * Masson, however, distinguished be-