754 Notice on the Antiquities of BhopaL [Aug. 



injure the tree of his birth or life, that is the tree dedicated to the day 

 on which he was born, and which trees are made 27 in number, to cor- 

 respond with the mansions of the Moon. 



The worship of the Peepul and the superstitious regard paid to the 

 tree of birth, lead the mind back to the Biblical injunctions about the 

 tree in the midst of the garden, and the vessel containing the altar as 

 represented in the sculptures, is almost a counterpart of the ark or 

 sacred boat of Egyptian processions, and which has served to illustrate 

 the ark of the Jewish covenant, except that waving punkahs and chow- 

 rees, the marks of dignity and respect, take the place of the oversha- 

 dowing wings of angels or cherubim. 



The actual worship of the serpent is not apparent among these 

 reliefs, but their hoods every where protect worshippers, and snakes 

 themselves sometimes seem the companions of devotees. Nevertheless 

 on the smaller Tope there is a representation of a bird destroying a 

 serpent. The subject however of the serpent-guarded race will be 

 noticed in describing the next series of remains at Oodehghir. 



The marked devotion paid to the sun deserves notice mainly in con- 

 nection with a snake-protected people, and with the worship of the 

 tree and of the sacred mount. An unfinished inscription in a ruinous 

 temple at Oodehpoor is solely in praise of the sun, as will be again 

 noticed, and it may be well to bear in mind the existence of the " Saurya" 

 sect among Hindoos, of the " Horn" offerings, and of the import of 

 the brahminical " Gayatri." 



In considering the structure of these Topes with their one or more 

 terraces, and with entrances which images guard or sanctify, and in 

 reflecting on the fact of their disuse for many ages among the Jain 

 representatives of the Buddhists, one is almost led to the conclusion 

 that as brahminism prevailed, the terraced mount gradually became 

 changed into the <f Gopura" and " Vimana" — the storied entrance and 

 solid pyramidal temple of the superstitions of the south of India. A 

 Pagoda still comprizes entrances, and courts, and shrines, as well as a 

 principal place of worship, and such was very much the plan of the 

 ancient Buddhist edifices under consideration, while the succession of 

 doors which lead to nothing, or abut against a solid wall, seems but an 

 improved copy of what a Tope must have presented with a succession 

 of stories, and with entrances admitting merely to narrow passages. 



