Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/98

 66 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I. roofs of the Indians were curvilinear probably derived from the roofs of thatched huts ; and if one can fancy a circular chamber with a domical roof not in stone, of course as the original receptacle of the relic, we may imagine that the form was derived from this. 1 The worship of stupas probably arose from the popular idea that the sanctity of the relics was shared by their shrines ; and gradually stupas, simply in memory of the Buddha or of any of his notable followers, came to be multiplied and reverenced everywhere. Many were solid blocks without any receptacle for a relic ; but in those inside chaitya halls, the casket was placed in the capital or Tee, whence it could be readily transferred, or taken out on the occasion of a festival. The earlier ones were very plain, consisting of a base or drum and dome, with a square capital in the form of a box ; the dome was regarded as the essential feature of a stupa, and with the "chhattra" or umbrella over it, as a symbol of dignity, and a surrounding path for " pradakshina " or circum- ambulation fenced off by a wall or railing, it was complete. In course of time they came to be honoured almost as the Buddha himself had his image affixed to their drums, and were decked with parasols, garlands of flowers, and flags or long ribbons, whilst presentations of money were made for their service. BniLSA TOPES. The most extensive, and taking it altogether, perhaps the most interesting, group of topes in India is that known as the Bhilsi Stupas or Topes, from a town of that name on the north border of Bhopal, near which they are situated. There, within a district not exceeding 10 miles east and west and 6 north and south, are five or six groups of topes, containing altogether between twenty-five and thirty individual examples. The principal of these, known as the great tope at Sanchi- Kanakheda, has been frequently described, the smaller ones are known from General Cunningham's descriptions only ; 2 but 1 Among the bas-reliefs of the Bharaut tope is one representing just such a domical roof as this (Woodcut No. 81). It is not, however, quite easy to make out its plan, nor to feel sure whether the object on the altar is a relic, or whether it may not be some other kind of offering. 2 ' Bhilsa Topes, or Buddhist Monu- ments in Central India,' 1854. One half of the work on ' Tree and Serpent Worship," and forty-five of its plates, besides woodcuts, are devoted to the illustration of the great Tope ; and numerous papers have appeared on the same subject in the 'Journal of the Asiatic Society ' and elsewhere. A cast of the eastern gateway is in the South Kensington Museum ; also in Edinburgh, Dublin, Berlin, and Paris Museums.