celebrated personage has already been mentioned. As the pupil of Gotiputra, he was of course a contemporary of Goti's other son, Kákana Prabhásan ; and it is therefore very natural that we should find their relics enshrined together. This Tope must of course be of the same age as No. 2 at Sánchi, or rather a few years later, as Kákanava Prabhásan was still alive when the latter was erected. The date may therefore be fixed with some certainty in 200 B. C., when the religious enthusiasm excited by the zeal and example of Asoka was still fervent.

NO. 3 TOPE.-ANDHER.

11. This little Tope, which was the last that we had the pleasure of examining, was likewise one of the most complete in its preservation, and one of the most interesting in its contents. It stands to the north-west of the other two, at a distance of rather more than 200 feet. The base of the dome is only 15 feet in diameter, and the whole height of the Tope is just 12 feet. The base stands on a cylindrical plinth 3 feet above the terrace, which is 4 feet in width and the same in height. On the east there is a landing place, 6 feet by 4 feet, which is reached by a double flight of steps, 3 feet 2 inches in width.

12. A shaft was sunk as usual down the centre of the Tope, and the relic-chamber was reached at a height of 1 foot 8 inches above the terrace. The • See Plate XXX., figs. 1 and 2.

chamber was 14 inches long by 13 inches broad, and the same in height. The side stones were placed so as to overlap at one end, thus forming a Swástika or mystic cross of the relic-chamber. See Plate XXX., figs. 3 and 4. Inside there was a large box of thin red earthenware, 7 inches high and 7 inches broad, containing a tall steatite casket,* similar to that of Kákanava, which was found in the Tope just described. This casket, however, is quite plain on the outside, with the exception of the ornamental bands. It is quite full of fragments of burnt bone. On the outside is carved the following inscription

Sapurisasa Háritíputasa.

"(Relics) of the emancipated HARITIPUTRA (son of Hárití).”

Inside the lid is the following inscription, written in ink :

Asa Devasa dánam.

"Gift of AsWA-DEVA."

13. The relics of Háriti-putra were therefore presented to the Andher fraternity by Aswa Deva. As another portion of his relics was found in No. 2 Tope at Sánchi, enshrined in the same casket with those of Majhima and Kásapa Gota, the two missionaries to the Hemawanta, there can be little doubt that he was a contemporary of those once celebrated men; and that he was one of the principal Buddhist teachers of the age of Asoka. The date of the Tope may there

• See Plate XXX., fig. 6.

fore be fixed with some certainty in the end of the third century before the Christian era, which will make the ink writing of the relic-casket about two centuries and a half older than that of the Papyri of Herculaneum and Pompeii.

CHAPTER XXVII.

SYMBOLS OF BUDDHA, DHARMA, AND SANGHA.

1. In my account of the sculptured ornaments of the different Topes, frequent mention is made of the symbols of Buddha and Dharma, which occur either singly or united amongst the bas-reliefs at Sánchi, and on many of the most ancient coins of India. The summits of the Sánchi gateways are crowned with these symbols. They occur as objects of worship amongst the bas-reliefs, supported either on pillars or on altars. They form ornaments for the arms and standards of the soldiers; and they are frequently placed both at the beginning and end of inscriptions.

2. The Triad of the Buddhists, which has already been explained, consisted of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Buddha was Spirit, or Divine Intelligence; Dharma was Matter, or Concrete Nature; and Sangha, the "union" of the two, was the universe. This was the esoteric or metaphysical explanation of the terms; but according to the exoteric doctrine, Buddha was Sákya Sinha, the mortal author of the Buddhist

fith: Dharma was the rinn a the “Law,”* and Sangha was the congregation" of the faithAL By the ambodia believers, Buddha was held to be the chief person of the Triad and the Supreme First Cause and Create of all things; but the Materialsts exalted Dharma to the chief place, and taught that Budila, or Spirit, was only an emanation from Prajná, or Nature, which was the Divine Source of all

3. The symbol of Buddha was, I believe, the wheel; which in its revolution was emblematic of the passage of the soul through the circle of the various forms of existence. Hence, the wheel, or whole circle, was typicial of any one who, after obtaining nircána, or emancipation from this mortal coil, had completed the circle of his existence, and was no longer subject to transmigration. Such a person was BUDDHA, the founder of the Buddhist religion, who was commonly called the Maha Chakravartti Raja,† or Supreme Lord of the Universe; or, more literally, the Great King who hath turned the wheel (of transmigration). In the institutes of Manu,‡ transmigration is compared to the wheel of a car; and again, in the Vishnu Purána, "the mark of Vishnu's dis

* The Buddhist reverence for Dharma, or the Law, will remind the English reader of the law in the Old Testament.

+ See Fo-kwe-ki, c. xx., n. 10; and also Prinsep's Journal, vol. vii., p. 106, where Turnour states that as Buddha's attributes were those of a Chakravartti Raja, so was he called by that title. t Chap. xii., sl. 124.

Wilson's Translation, p. 101.