and perhaps even a century earlier, or about B. C. 500.*

4. The date of the colonnade or railing might be determined approximately to belong to the age of Asoka, by the alphabetical characters of the inscriptions, which are exactly similar to those of the pillar edicts. But there is a still more certain proof of the correctness of this date in the short inscription, No. 110, which records the "gift of SUBÁHITA, son of Goti the royal scribe." This Goti was a descendant of Kodini (Sans. Kohudinya), one of the principal disciples of Buddha. As he was the teacher of VACHHI SUVIJAYATA, he must have taken the vows himself. His eldest son, Gotiputra, was one of the most famous Buddhist teachers of his day. We learn this fact from the relic inscriptions which record the names of two disciples of Gotiputra. Of these, the most celebrated is that of Mogaliputra, who conducted the proceedings of the Third Synod in B. C. 241. The other pupil was Váchhiputra.

5. A third son of Goti, named Kákanava Prabhúsan, was the donor of Suvijayata's relics to the Sánchi Tope, No. 2; and his own relics were found in the Andher Tope, No. 2. A fourth son, named Bhanduka, is mentioned in the colonnade inscription,

* I suppose that the interior brick Tope may be as old as 500 B. C., and that the stone casing was added by Asoka. This kind of addition was not unusual. See Mahawanso, p. 202, where Lajjitisso, king of Ceylon, encloses the Thuparamo with a case of

stone.

No. 33. Thus three sons of Goti had taken the vows, whilst a fourth became the King's Scribe, or Secretary (Raja-Lipákara). As the eldest of these brothers was the teacher of Mogaliputra, he was probably somewhat older than his pupil, although not necessarily So. The younger brother may therefore be looked upon as the contemporary of Mogaliputra, which will fix his date from 260 B. c. to 230, during the most flourishing period of the Buddhist religion.

6. The age of the gateways has been ascertained from an inscription carved on a bas-relief representation of a Tope on the upper architrave of the southern entrance. This inscription (No. 190) records the "gift of an entrance architrave by ANANDA, the son of Vasishtha, in the reign of SRI SATAKARNI." This Prince was the third of the Andhra kings of Magadha; and his reign has been fixed, by the common consent of all archæologists, in the early part of the first century of our era. According to my chronology he reigned from 19 to 37 A. d.

7. The fact that the gateways are of later date than the colonnade or railing, is confirmed by the more recent character of the inscriptions, which approaches that of the Sáh coins of Gujrat. For the sake of comparison, I have collected all these gateway inscriptions in Plate XIX., beneath the more ancient record of the Southern Pillar. By this arrangement, a single glance is sufficient to show the great change which had taken place in the alphabetical characters in about two centuries and a half.

8. But there is still one more convincing proof that the gateways are of later date than the railing. In the plan of the Tope, in Plate VIII., the old railing on which the more ancient inscriptions are carved, is shaded lightly, and the additional railing and gateway pillars, on which the less ancient inscriptions are found, are made quite black. By this it will be seen that a half pillar of the more recent railing is made to abut against the third pillar of the older railing. Now, as most of the old pillars were inscribed, it seemed probable that one inscription at least would be found hidden by the half pillar of the less ancient railing. And such, indeed, is the fact at the northern entrance, where a long hidden inscription on the pillar of the old railing is now revealed by the separation of the two pillars of different ages.

9. The different dates of the Tope, of its colonnades and of its gateways, have been satisfactorily settled within certain limits; but the destination or object of the building is more difficult to be ascertained. From the non-discovery of relics, I infer that this great chaitya was dedicated to the Supreme Buddha. This conjecture is strengthened by the existence of statues of the four mortal Buddhas at the entrances. For it is the practice of the modern Buddhists of Népal, when they dedicate a Chaitya to Adi Buddha, to place four statues of the Dhyani Buddhas at its base. Vairochana (or light), the first of the Pancha Dhyáni Buddhas, is supposed to occupy the centre of the building. It seems quite possible, however, that this

T

Tope contained some relics of Sákya; but if, as I believe, the relics of the holy teacher were always kept in some easily accessible place, for the purpose of being shown to the people on stated festivals, it seems probable that they would have been carried off by the monks, on the general break-up of the Buddhist monastic establishments throughout India.

CHAPTER XVIII.

NO. 2 TOPE.-SÁNCHI.

1. In 1819, when Captain Fell visited Sánchi, this Tope was "in perfect repair, not a stone having fallen;"* but in 1822 it was half destroyed by the same amateur antiquaries who ruined the larger Tope. It stands half way down the slope of the hill, about 400 yards from the great Tope, from which it bears 1091° west. The hill has been carefully levelled, and the western side built up to form a court 100 feet square, in the midst of which stands the Tope surrounded by the usual Buddhist railing.

2. The Tope is a solid hemisphere (built of rough stones, without mortar) 39 feet in diameter, springing from a cylindrical plinth of the same diameter, and 3 feet in height. The basement is 6 feet in height, with a projection of 5 feet 4 inches, which forms a terrace for the perambulation of worshippers. The terrace is reached on the eastern side by a double flight of steps (now in ruins) 5 feet 2

* Prinsep's Journal, iii. 494.