Army, is now employed at Ajanta in copying the paintings; but the volumes of inscriptions in the Caves of Nasik, Junir, Kanari, and Karli, still remain to be copied.*

6. The Viháras, or Monasteries, are of two kinds-1st, Cave Viháras, of which several magnificent specimens have been published by Mr. Fergusson; and 2nd, Structural Viháras, of which some specimens still remain at Sánchi, but in a very ruinous condition.

7. The Inscriptions on the Pillars at Delhi and Allahabad, and on the Tirhut Pillars at Mathiya and Rádhiya have long ago been deciphered and translated by the remarkable ingenuity of James Prinsep. The Inscriptions on the Rocks at Junagiri in Gujrat, and at Dhauli in Kuttack, were also interpreted by him. A third version of the rock inscriptions (but in the Ariano Pali character), which was found at Kapur-digiri, near Peshawur, has been carefully collated with the others by

* In Bird's learned "Historical Researches on the Origin and Principles of the Bauddha and Jaina Religions," there are several plates of inscriptions from the Caves of Kanari, Karli, Ajanta, Ellora, Nasik, &c. Of some of these, Dr. Bird has offered translations; but as he has an evident leaning towards identifying Buddhism with the ancient Sun-worship, the translations are not so accurate as could be wished. For instance, wherever the proper name of Mitra (a friend) occurs, he has translated it as if it was the Persian Mithra, the sun. His third inscription, p. 51, which gives the name of Budha Mitra (the friend of Buddha), should have taught him the true value of Mitra.

Professor Wilson. Many short inscriptions from Gaya, Sánchi, and Birât, as well as from the Cave Temples of Southern India, have also been published at different times; but, with the single exception of the edicts in the Rock Inscriptions, which contain the names of Antiochus, Ptolemy, Antigonus, and Magas, the inscriptions in the present volume are of greater interest, and of much higher importance, than all that have yet been published.

8. The numerous Topes which still exist in India are chiefly confined to a few localities. The Topes of Kâbul and Jelalabad were opened by Messrs. Honigberger and Masson in 1835, and those between the Indus and the Jhelam by Generals Ventura and Court in 1833 and 1834. The Topes near Benares were opened by myself in 1835, and those at Sánchi and other places around Bhilsa, were opened by Lieut. Maisey and myself in January and February of the present year. The Topes of Tirhut and Bahar still remain to be examined.

9. Of the Bhilsa Topes none have yet been described excepting the largest of the Sánchi group near Bhilsa. An accurate plan and section of this building, with a short account of the various subjects represented in the sculptured bas-reliefs of the gateways, was published by my brother Captain J. D. Cunningham, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. On his solicitation* and earnest repre

* See Vol. xvi., p. 745. Just eighteen days before his death, my brother thus wrote to a friend regarding these discoveries,

sentation of the great value of these bas-reliefs, the Court of Directors were induced to employ Lieut. Maisey to make drawings of the building, and of its sculptured gateways. In January last I joined Lieut. Maisey at Sánchi, and I am therefore able to speak positively of the value of his drawings, which cannot be surpassed for strict fidelity of outline and minute accuracy of detail. The bas-reliefs of the great Tope at Sánchi will now be illustrated in a manner worthy of their value and importance.

10. In the present work it is my intention to describe the Topes, or Buddhist monuments, which still exist in the neighbourhood of BHILSA, in Central India. These Topes consist of five distinct groups, all situated on low sandstone hills, more or less inaccessible. (See Map.)

1st, SÁNCHI, 5 miles to S. W. from Bhilsa. 2nd, SONARI, 6 miles to S. W. from Sánchi. 3rd, SATDHARA, 6 miles W. from Sánchi. 4th, BHOJPUR, 7 miles E. S. E. from Sánchi, and 6 miles S. S. E. from Bhilsa.

5th, ANDHER, 4 miles E. S. E. from Bhojpur, and 9 miles E. S. E. from Bhilsa.

-The extreme distance from west to east, or from Satdhâra to Andher, is 17 miles.

11 A Tope is properly a religious edifice de

which had been early communicated to him. "It is no small pleasure to me to reflect that my residence in Bhopal brought about the delineation of this monument and that of others, and so led the way to many important antiquarian results."

dicated emphatically to Buddha; that is, either to the celestial Adi Buddha, the great First Cause of all things, or to one of his emanations, the Mánúshi, or "Mortal" Buddhas, of whom the most celebrated, and the only historical one, is Sákya Muni, who died in B. C. 543. In the Topes dedicated to the celestial Buddha, the invisible Being who pervaded all space, no deposit was made; but the Divine Spirit, who is "Light," was supposed to occupy the interior, and was typified on the outside by a pair of eyes, placed on each of the four sides either of the base, or of the crown of the edifice.* Such is the great Chaitya or Tope near Kathmandu, in Nepál, dedicated to Swayambhunáth (the “Self Existent"), in which the eyes are placed on the upper portion of the building. A specimen of the regular Chaitya is represented in the 3rd compartment (inner face) of the left-hand pillar of the eastern gate at Sánchi, in which the two eyes are placed one above the other. Such also are the numerous Chhod-tens in Tibet, which are dedicated to the celestial Buddha, in contradistinction to the

The legend of Kunála, the son of Asoka, proves the antiquity of this practice. In a former birth, Kunála is said to have plucked the eyes from a Chaitya, for which he was punished by the loss of his own in the next birth; and because he then presented a pair of golden eyes to a Chaitya, he was afterwards born as the son of Asoka, with eyes beautiful as those of the Kunála bird, from which circumstance he obtained his name. See Hodgson, p. 117; and Burnouf Buddhisme Indien, pp. 409-413. See also Plate III. of this volume.

Dung-tens, which are built in honour of the mortal Buddhas, and which ought to contain some portion of their relics either real or supposed. The first, Chhod-ten, means simply an "offering" to the Deity; the latter, Dung-ten, is emphatically a "BONE," or relic-receptacle. The same distinction is preserved in the Sanskrit terms, Chaitya and Dhátugarbha or Dhagoba. The former is properly a religious edifice, dedicated to Adi-Buddha, while the latter is only a "relic-shrine," or repository of ashes. The word Chaitya, however, means any sacred object-as a tree, an altar, a temple-as well as any monument raised on the site of a funeral pile, as a mound or a pillar: Chaitya may therefore, perhaps, be only a general term for both kinds of mound; while Dhâtugarbha or Dhúgoba is particularly restricted to the "relic" shrine.

12. The word TOPE is derived from Afghanistan, where it is used to designate all the solid mounds of masonry which were opened by Messrs. Honigberger and Masson. The same term also is applied to the massive tower of Manikyâla in the Panjáb, as well as to all the smaller towers in its neighbourhood. There can be no doubt therefore that the name of Tope is the same as the Páli Thupo, and the Sanskrit Stupa, a "mound" or "tumulus," both of which terms are of constant use in the Buddhist books. Stupa, or Tope, is therefore a name common to each kind of tumulus; whether it be the solid temple dedicated to the Supreme Being, or the massive