the 6th century B.C., and of Mogaliputra and others who assisted at the Third Synod in B.C. 241, there is every reasonable expectation that a complete examination of the still existing monuments would yield us the names of many of the principal leaders of Buddhism during the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries before Christ. We should thus, perhaps, obtain one or more complete genealogical successions during the most eventful period of Indian history. CHAPTER XXI. NO. 3 TOPE.-SÁNCHI. 1. AT first sight this Tope presented a mere mass of ruins ;* but a closer inspection showed the lower courses of the hemisphere and the terrace of the basement tolerably perfect, although hidden amongst a heap of fallen stones. The diameter of the hemisphere is 40 feet; the breadth of the terrace, which was formed of single slabs, and is still quite perfect on the western side, is 6 feet, and its height above the original level of the soil is 74 feet; but only 6 feet above the floor of the entrance door-way which is still standing to the south. The dome was crowned by a pedestal 4 feet square, which supported a chatta about 3 feet in diameter. A square slab, which once formed part of the pedestal, is now lying to the south of the Tope, and a fragment of the chatta to the north-east. 2. The Tope was surrounded by a Buddhist railing, of which the only remains are a few of the curved * See Plate XXII. coping stones, and some fragments of two pillars. The coping stones are 9 inches high and 7 inches thick. The pillars have the same section; and we may therefore conclude that the railing was somewhat less than five feet in height. The railing of No. 1 Tope at Sonári, of which the pillars are 91 inches by 8 inches, is only 4 feet 8 inches in height. The enclosure most probably had four gateways; one to the south is still standing, and I thought that I could trace the remains of a second on the east. 3. The pillars of the southern entrance are 14 inches square, with an interval of 5 feet 4 inches. The clear breadth between the railing and the base of the Tope must have been about 12 feet; one side of each of the pillars, to which the railing was attached, is left plain; and as the arrangement is the same as that of the entrances of the Great Tope, it seems certain that the gateways of this Tope must have been of a later date than the railing. The basreliefs of the pillars and architraves are so strikingly similar in subject and in style to those of the Great Tope, that there can be little doubt that both are the work of the same period. There are the same representations of Topes and Trees, the same lion pillar surmounted by a wheel, and the same figures clad in the same dresses. 4. The Tope stood in the midst of a square enclosure, and was surrounded by a very thick wall, the foundations of which still remain on three sides. The |