Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/86

 54 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I. are easily classified and dated, while the origin of the latter, for the present, seems lost in the mist of the early ages of Indian arts. Meanwhile, the knowledge that the architectural history of India commences about B.C. 250, and that all the monuments now known to us are Buddhist, or of cognate sects, for at least five or six centuries after that time, are cardinal facts that cannot be too strongly insisted upon by those who wish to clear away a great deal of what has hitherto tended to render the subject obscure and unintelligible. CLASSIFICATION. For convenience of description it will probably be found expedient to classify the various objects of Buddhist art under the five following groups, though of course it is at times impossible to separate them entirely from one another, and sometimes two or more of them must be taken together as parts of one monument. ist. Stambhas or Ldts. These pillars are common to all the styles of Indian architecture. With the Buddhists they were employed to bear inscriptions on their shafts, with emblems or animals on their capitals. With the Jains they were generally Dipdans, or lamp-bearing pillars, but sometimes supporting quadruple figures of a Jina ; with the Vaishnavas they as generally bore statues of Garuda or Hanuman ; with the .Saivas they bore the trLmla symbol or were Dipdans and flag-staffs ; but, whatever their destination, they were always among the most original, and frequently the most elegant, productions of Indian art. 2nd. Stiipas or Topes. These, again, were primarily relic- shrines, but may be divided into two classes, according to their destination : first, Stupas proper, or monuments containing relics of Buddha or of some Buddhist saint ; x secondly, the stupas or towers erected to commemorate some event or mark some sacred spot dear to the followers of the Buddha. If it were possible, these two ought to be kept separate, but no external signs have yet been discovered by which they can be dis- tinguished from one another, and till this is so, they must be considered, architecturally at least, as one. 2 1 The Jains in very early times had Mathura'; 'Epigraphia Indica,' vol. ii. stupas and worshipped at them. Even plates at pp. 314-321; ' Actes du Vienna still the Samosaranas in some^ of their Congres Int. Orient.' vol. iii. pt. ii., temples at 5atrunjaya, Girnar, Abu, etc., plate at p. 142; and z'/ra pp. ill, 130. are survivals of the earlier stupas. They 2 Dagaba is a Singalese word applied to were also known as' Chaityas as stupas a stupa, from the Sanskrit "dhatu," a are still called in Nepal and Tibet. | 'relic,' 'element,' and "garbha" (in Biihler, 'Legend of the Jaina Stupa at Pali "gabbho") a 'womb,' 'receptacle,'