Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/153

 CHAP. IV. RAIL AT AMARAVATI. 119 Indian prototypes are sometimes in stone, sometimes in wood and frequently compounded of both materials, in varying pro- portions. What is still more curious, a toran with five bars was erected in front of the Temple at Jerusalem, to bear the sacred golden vine. It, however, was partly in wood, partly in stone, and was erected to replace one that adorned Solomon's Temple, which was wholly in bronze, and supported by the celebrated pillars Jachin and Boaz. 1 AMARAVATI. Although the rail at Bharaut is the most interesting and important in India in an historical sense, it is far from being equal to that at Amaravati, either in elaboration or in artistic merit. Indeed, in these respects, the Amaravati rail is probably the most remarkable monument in India. In the first place, it is more than twice the dimensions of the rail at Bharaut, the great rail being 192 ft. in diameter, the base i6a| ft., 2 or almost exactly twice the dimensions of that at Bharaut ; between these two was the procession-path 13 ft. wide. The inner wall of sculptures was the facing of the base that supported the plat- form on which the dome stood. Externally, the total height of the great rail was about 14 ft. ; internally, it was 2 ft. less, while the sculptured facing of the base was, perhaps, only 6 ft. in height, with a frieze and cornice over it. The external appearance of the great rail may be judged of from the annexed woodcut (No. 41), representing a small section of it. The lower part, or plinth, was ornamented by a frieze of animals and boys or dwarfs, generally in ludicrous and comic attitudes. The pillars, as usual, were rectangular with the corners splayed off, ornamented with full discs in the centre, and half discs top and bottom, between which were figure sculptures of more or less importance. On the three rail-bars were full discs, all most elaborately carved, and all different. Above runs the usual undulating roll moulding, which was universal in all ages, 3 but is here richly inter- spersed with figures and emblems. The inside of the rail was very much more richly ornamented than the outside ' Tree and Serpent Worship,' Appen- dix I. p. 270; 'Temples of the Jews,' pp. 152, 155. 1 From some misunderstanding of the first accounts, it was supposed the Amara- vati stupa had an inner rail ; this was a mistake the inner circle of sculptures was the facing of the base of the stupa. 3 In Burma at the present day a roll precisely similar to this, formed of coloured muslin, distended by light bamboo hoops, is borne on men's shoulders in the same manner as shown here, on each side of the procession that accompanies a high priest or other ecclesiastical dignitary to the grave.