No. 1 TOPE.-SÁNCHI.

8. The great Sánchi Tope is situated on the western edge of the hill. The ground has once been carefully levelled, by cutting away the surface rock on the east, and by building up a retaining wall on the west. The court (as it now exists) averages one hundred and fifty yards in length, and is exactly one hundred yards in breadth. In the midst stands the Great Chaitya, No. I.,* surrounded by a massive colonnade. The bald appearance of the solid dome is relieved by the lightness and elegance of the highly picturesque gateways. On all sides are ruined temples, fallen columns, and broken sculptures and even the Tope itself, which had withstood the destructive rancour of the fiery Saivas and the bigoted Musalmáns, has been half-ruined by the blundering excavations of amateur antiquaries.

9. In the north-east, south-east, and south-west corners of the court there are small ruined Topes, marked Nos. 5, 6, 7 in the plan, Plate IV. In the south there is a small temple of middle age, and an old Chaitya temple with lofty square columns. The semicircular end of this temple was first traced by my brother,

"There is a stern round tower of other days,
Firm as a fortress with its fence of stone;
Such as an army's baffled strength delays,
Standing with half its battlements alone,

Captain J. D. Cunningham, and afterwards more leisurely by Lieut. Maisey, who made an excavation on the supposed site of the Chaitya, and was rewarded by the discovery of a small chamber containing a broken steatite vase.

10. The great Tope itself is a solid dome of stone and brick, 106 feet in diameter, and 42 feet in height, springing from a plinth of 14 feet, with a projection of 5 feet from the base of the building, and a slope of 2 feet. The plinth or basement formed a terrace for the perambulation of worshippers of the enshrined relic; for, on the right pillar of the North Gateway there is a representation of a Tope and of two worshippers walking round it, with garlands in their hands. The terrace was reached by a double flight of steps to the south, connected by a landing ten feet square.‡

11. The apex of the dome was flattened into a terrace 34 feet in diameter, surrounded by a stone railing of that style so peculiar to Bauddha monuments, that I will venture to call it the "Buddhist Railing."

And with two thousand years of ivy grown,
The garland of eternity-where wave
The green leaves, over all by Time o'erthrown,
What was this tower of strength?
What treasure lay so locked, so hid?

Within its cave
A hermit's grave."
BYRON

Childe Harold.

* Journal As. Soc. Bengal, xvii. Plate XXVIII.

+ See Plate XIII.

See Plate VIII.

Many of the pillars of this colonnade are now lying at the base of the monument; and several portions of the coping or architrave prove that the enclosure was a circular one. The inscriptions Nos. 173, 174, 175, and 176, are taken from the fallen pillars of this colonnade. The pillars are 3 feet 4 inches high, 9 inches broad, and 7 inches thick. They are of the same pattern as those of the lower enclosure, and in fact of all the enclosures of Buddhist Topes throughout India.* I counted nearly forty of these pillars, but several must be buried beneath the rubbish of the destructive excavation made by the amateur antiquaries in 1822. As the spaces between the pillars were, as nearly as can now be ascertained, about one foot, this enclosure would have required exactly sixtyone pillars.

12. Within the upper enclosure there was a square altar or pedestal surrounded by pillars of the same description, but much taller, some of which are still lying on the top of the dome. In 1819, when Captain Fell visited Sánchi, these pillars were all there; but one of the corner pillars is now lying at the base of the monument to the north-west. It is proved to have belonged to a square enclosure, by its having faces at right angles to each other with two rows of mortices for the reception of the ends of the stone

* See Plates VII., IX., XXIII., and XXVIII., for specimens of enclosures.

+ Prinsep's Journal, iv. 712. Prinsep's Journal, iii. 490.

rails. The projecting cornice of this altar or pedestal is restored from the numerous representations of Topes amongst the bas-reliefs of the gateways. The cupola or umbrella-pinnacle is restored from existing fragments guided by the designs of Topes just mentioned.* One piece is now lying on the top of the dome, and another at the foot of the breach. This cupola was 5 feet 6 inches in diameter, and 2 feet high. It is hollowed out underneath; and above it has a mortice 8 inches deep for the reception of a staff of a second cupola, such as we see represented in the bas-reliefs..

13. The total height of the building including the cupolas must have been upwards of one hundred feet.

14. The base of the Tope is surrounded by a massive colonnade, 144 feet in diameter from west to east, and 151 feet in diameter from north to south. This enclosure is therefore elliptical; the greater diameter exceeding the lesser by 7 feet. By this arrangement a free passage is obtained round the southern staircases, and a greater breadth at the foot of the ascent. The breadth of the cloister on the north-west and north-east sides averages 9 feet 7 inches, the several measurements only differing by a few inches. From east to south the cloister increases rapidly in width; the breadth at the east being only 9 feet 11 inches, and at the foot of the staircase 13 feet 8 inches. The elliptical form is

See two specimens in Plate III., figs. 1 and 2.

shown distinctly in my brother's plan,* although he does not mention it in his description.

15. The pillars of this colonnade are 9 feet 10 inches in height, with an average thickness of 1 foot 10 inches. The front and back of each pillar have three faces; a middle one, 9 inches in breadth, and two side ones, slightly bevelled, each 6 inches broad. The pillars are let into the ground from 15 to 18 inches. The interval or inter-columniation is 2 feet 1 inch.

16. The rails are three in number with intervals of 4 inches. Each rail is 2 feet 1 inch long, and the same broad. The section is formed of two intersecting circular segments, with a double versed sine of 9 inches, which forms the thickness of the rail. The mortices in the pillars are of the same section as the rails, and are from 3 to 4 inches in depth.

17. The architrave or coping is formed of long solid blocks rounded at top, each 2 feet 3 inches in height, by 2 feet 1 inch in thickness. Each beam spans two intercolumniations, and has three mortices for receiving the tenons of the three pillars. Some of the beams are connected together by tenons and mortices, and others by stone joggles.

18. A view of this remarkable stone-railing is given in Plate IX., which shows the general disposition of the numerous inscriptions. The style is evidently characteristic and conventional, as it is

* Journal As. Soc. Bengal, xvii. Plate XXVIII.