Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/146

 112 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I. and semicircular plates at top and bottom. 1 In carpentry the circular ones would represent a great nail meant to keep the centre bar in its place ; the half discs top and bottom, metal plates to strengthen the junctions and this it seems most probably may really have been the origin of these forms. If from this we attempt Ifo follow the progress made in the ornamentation of these rails, it seems to have been arrived at by placing a circular disc in each of the intermediate rails, as shown in the woodcut (No. 36), copied from a representation of the outer face of the Amaravati rail, carved upon it. In the actual rail the pillars are proportionally taller and the spaces somewhat wider, but in all other respects it is the same it has the same zoophorus below, and the same conventional figures bearing a roll above, both of which features are met with almost everywhere. 35- Rail, No. 2 Tope, Sanchi. (From a Drawing by Col. Maisey.) 36. Representation of Rail, (From a Bas-relief at Amara vat!,) A fourth stage was reached in that shown in the next woodcut (No. 37), from a representation of a rail in the 1 The sculptures on this rail have not | drawn by Col. Maisey. See his ' Sanchi,' been fully illustrated ; some of them were | plates 29-31, and pp. 67-70.