Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/142

 io8 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I. far as it goes, tends to confirm the conclusion that, at the period they were erected, the style was passing from wood to stone. man in the robes of a priest standing up to his middle in the water, and above the Naga a female genius, apparently floating in the air. Below is another Nagaraja, with his quintuple snake-hood, and behind him two females with a single 33. Tree and Serpent Worship at Bharaut, (From a Photograph.) snake at the back of their heads an arrangement which is universal in all Naga sculpture. They are standing up to their waists in water. If we may depend on the inscription below him, this is Erapato twice over, and the females are his two wives. The inscription up the side states that this is " the gift of Rishidatta, a preacher." Cunningham's ' Stiipa of Bharhut,' plate 14. This bas-relief is further interesting as being an epitome of my work on ' Tree and Serpent Worship.' As expressing in the shortest possible compass nearly all that is said there at length, it will also serve to explain much that is advanced in the following pages. As it is years older than anything that was known when that book was written, it is a confirmation of its theories, as satisfactory as it is complete.