Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/140

 io6 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I. elevations of buildings so correctly drawn as to enable us to recognise all their features in the rock-cut edifices now existing. The toran, most like this one, is that which surmounted the southern entrance at Sanchi, which I believe to be the oldest of the four found there, and to have been erected in the middle of the 2nd century, before our era (B.C. 160-150). This one, however, is so much more wooden and constructively so inferior, that I would, on architectural grounds alone, be inclined to affirm that it was the older. The age of the rail, however, does not depend on this determination, as the toran may have been added afterwards. The rail was apparently 9 ft. in height, including the coping,