66 
THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
BUDDHIST TOPE AT SARNATH, BENARES. 
Monuments of India. 
The history of architecture in India commences 
with the reign of Asoka, 270 to 234 B.C. It is quite 
appropriate that the prince, who established the 
Buddhist church, first discarded the flimsy and 
perishable material of wood hitherto used for build- 
ing, and employed the more solid and lasting stone. 
The earliest stone monuments still existing date 
from the third century B. C. , and for five or six 
centuries following all architecture thatstill remains 
was enlisted in the service of the church. 
Besides cutting inscriptions in rock, in the 
twelfth and the thirteenth year of his reign, Asoka 
set up a number of pillars throughout his counrty, 
which made the doctrines of his faith known to his 
subjects. Of these pillars, stambhas or lats, as they 
are called, only a few are still existing. The most 
complete is that at Allahabad; it gives us an idea of 
what the hundreds of pillars that have disappeared 
must have been. Its shaft, 33 feet long, 3 feet 
wide at the base, and 2 feet 2 inches wide at the 
summit, resembles the tapering stem of a pine tree. 
It bore a crowning ornament — a wheel, or perhaps 
the figure of an animal — which has disappeared. 
This pillar — which bears the inscriptions of Asoka 
(250 B. C. ); of Samudra Gupta (380-400 A. D.) 
detailing the glories of his reign; of Jehangir the 
Mogul emperor (1605 A. D. ) commemorating his 
accession, and which is now placed on a pedestal in 
the English fort at Allahabad — illustrates the 
strange vicissitudes of Indian history. Another class 
of monuments, which have come down to us from 
the third century, are the towers. Stupas or Topes, 
which commemorate an event or mark a spot, 
sacred to the followers of Buddha; and the Dagobas 
which contain relics of their lord or one of his 
saints. 
The best known of the topes which still presents 
distinct architectural features is at Sarnath, where . 
Buddha first expounded the truth, “turned the < 
wheel of the law” to his former disciples. On a j 
mound of brick and stone ruins, half a mile long 
and a quarter of a mile broad, there are the re- 
mains of brick towers and buildings, prominent . : 
amongst which is the great tower, as it is called, of 
Dhamek. In 1835 it was examined by General “ 
Cunningham, who gives its measurement as 109 * 
feet 10 inches in height, 292 feet in circumference, . 
93 feet in diameter at its base. The lower part of 
the monument has eight projecting faces, each 2l f 
feet 6 inches in width, with intervals of i 5 feet be- : 
tween them. In each face, 24 feet above the ground, 
there is a niche five and a half feet in width and 
height. Each niche no doubt contained life-size L 
statues of Buddha; the statues have disappeared, but ■; 
the ornamentation has remained. It consists of a . 
profusion of flowing foliage on each face, on either 
side of the niche; and of a triple band, 9 feet in 
depth, the upper and the lower of which represents 
lotus blossoms and flowers, while the middle con- 
tains geometrical designs, all of exquisite beauty, 
surrounding the whole tower. The upper part of 
the building remained unfinished; it was to have 
been encircled, most probably, with pilasters, and 
covered with a dome. Excavations brought to light 
an inscription — to judge from the characters, of the 
seventh century — containing the Buddhist profes- 
sion of faith: “Of all things proceeding from 
cause, their causes hath the Buddha explained; (he) 
hath likewise explained the cause of the cessation 
of existence .’’ — The Religions of India. 
SCULPTURE ON TOPE AT SARNATH 
