No. 62. — 1909.] stone architecture. 



335 



with machinery. And, again, there was on either side of the 

 tunnel bedrooms for all the hundred princes, and the locks of the 

 doors were of machinery. In each bedroom there was placed a 

 large bed, decorated with variously-coloured beddings and trap- 

 pings, and in each room there was a throne, surmounted by a 

 white umbrella, and decorated in the same way. In rooms 

 there were modelled figures of women as fair as goddesses, dressed 

 in all woman's attire, so beautifully done that a person that did 

 not know of it would not be able to distinguish them from real 

 women, unless by touching. And, again, there were charming 

 paintings done on either side of the tunnel by clever artisan 

 painters. On either side of the tunnel were caused markets to be 

 made to contain various sorts of merchandise. In every part 

 they hung up garlands of sweet-smelling flowers." 



It is, of course, difficult to believe that the Indians of the 

 Buddhist period could have excavated a tunnel as described here. 

 Still this story shows that the Indians in those ancient days had 

 most advanced ideas, and certainly were not lacking in highly 

 inventive faculty. 



Slide 50. Before I leave this period of Indian art, let me show 

 you two steatite vases discovered at Sonari and Piprahva Stupas. 

 The former is in Central India, near Bhilsa, and the latter at 

 Birdhpur , six miles from the frontier of Nepal. It will be seen that 

 they have inscriptions in the oldest Brahmi character yet dis- 

 covered in India. The top three are different photos of the Sonari 

 vase, which, according to the inscription, contained relics or ashes 

 of Kasyapa, the Buddhist missionary sent by As6ka to the Hima- 

 laya region. The lower two are photos of the Piprahva vase 

 discovered by Mr. Peppe about two and a half years ago in his 

 estate. It is considerably older than the Sonari one. 



During Buddha's lifetime, both Bimbisara and his successor 

 Ajatasatru were reigning at Kajagraha, the capital of Magadha. 

 Their contemporary was the celebrated autocrat of the Persian 

 empire, Darius, the son of Hystaspes, who sent an expedition to 

 India and managed temporarily to hold sway in the Indus valley. 



We thus see that more than two centuries before Alexander's 

 invasion of Punjab , the Indians came in contact with a nation who 

 used stone for building purposes. Mr. Vincent Smith, in his work 

 on 44 Early India," says, in reference to Hellenic influence, that 

 "the Maurya empire was not, as some recent writers fancy that it 

 was, in any way the result of Alexander's splendid but transitory 

 raid. Candragupta did not need Alexander' s example to teach him 

 what empire meant. He and his countrymen had before their 

 eyes for ages the stately fabric of the Persian monarchy, and 

 it was that empire which impressed their imagination, and 

 served as a model for their institutions, in so far as they were 

 not indigenous." 



Mr. Vincent Smith's conclusions may be correct so far as 

 Government institutions are concerned. But in art the Persian 

 influence has only affected certain forms of architectural detail 

 as a natural consequence of a long period of friendly intercourse. 



