Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/154

 120 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I. shown in the woodcut. All the central range of discs, both on the pillars and on the rails, were carved with figured External Elevation of Great Rail at Amaravati. subjects, generally of very great elaboration and beauty of detail ; and the coping was one continuous bas-relief upwards of 600 ft. in length. At the returns of the gateways another system was adopted, as shown in next woodcut (No. 42). The pillars being narrower, and the discs smaller, the principal sculpture was on the intermediate space : in this instance a king on his throne receives a messenger, while his army in front defends the walls ; lower down the infantry, cavalry, and elephants sally forth in battle array, while one of the enemy sues for peace, which is probably the information being com- municated to the king. The sculptured base, though, perhaps, lower than the rail, was even more richly ornamented than it, generally with figures of dagabas apparently twelve in each quadrant