﻿274 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [vol. 47 



King Asoka, the patron and propagator of Buddhism in the 3d cen- 

 tury, B. a, build 84,000 stnpas all over India in commemoration of 

 the same number of discourses supposed to have been delivered by 

 Buddha, or in honor of the number of atoms of which Buddha's 

 body consisted. But already in the early periods of Buddhism stnpas 

 we're constructed ex voto either for marking some important event 

 in the life of Buddha and the history of Buddhism, or for decorating 

 the monasteries and temples. At present pagodas are built chiefly as 

 an act of devotion on the part of some pious person desirous of 

 acquiring merit. In keeping with the original purpose of the pagoda, 

 its earliest architectural style was derived from the tomb or tumulus. 

 The earliest stupas are simple cupolas or hemispheres raised on a low 

 basement, about half the diameter in height. With the exception of 

 the small chamber for the ashes or relics, these shrines were solid 

 masses of bricks or stone. One of the most important surviving 

 structures of this kind is the Sanchi stupa, also known as the Bhilsa 

 tope, in central India, which is a solid dome of stone, 106 feet in 

 diameter and 46 feet in height, and which Cunningham would ascribe 

 to the 3d century B. c. Gradually the plinth was increased until 

 it rose from one to two diameters in height, of which the finest 

 existing example is the great stupa of Dhamek at Sarnath, Benares, 

 which was built about the 6th century a. d. 1 



The apex of the dome was usually surmounted by a disk placed 

 horizontally, on which rose, as a terminal, an opened umbrella, the 

 most common emblem of royalty and state among Eastern nations, or 

 perhaps to symbolize the wandering mendicant monks of Buddhism. 

 Ferguson- surmises that the umbrella, or tee, in its earliest form was, 

 or at all events represented, a relic box, assuming that originally the 

 relic was very likely not placed in the tope but on its top. Later the 

 number of umbrellas was increased to 3, 7, 9, II, and even 13 

 (always on odd number), placed one above the other. 



In Tibet, and more especially in China, the terminal has frequently 

 become the whole monument, the dome being wholly omitted. The 

 most magnificent example of this style is the porcelain pagoda of 

 Nankin, China, generally called the "Temple of Gratitude," which 

 in its nine stories rises to a height of 236 feet. 



The pyramidal shape observed in the Wat Chang pagoda is the 

 most common for these religious edifices of Buddhism, and in this 

 respect they recall the terraced Temple Towers in Babylonia, a model 

 of which can also lie seen in the National Museum. 



'Compare A. Cunningham, Mahabodhi, or the Great Buddhist Temple under 

 the Bodhi Tree at Buddha-Gaya, London, 1^92, p. 47. 

 1 Handbook of Architecture, London, [859, p. 19- 



