dimensions. It is believed that the smallest are merely the places of interment of
local chiefs; others are strictly Dagobas, or relic-shrines; while the largest is a
chaitya or stupa, designed apparently to consecrate some sacred spot, or
perpetuate the memory of some remarkable event in Buddhist history.
Architecturally speaking, it consists, first, of a basement 121 feet in diameter and
14 feet in height. This is surmounted by a platform or procession path, within
which the dome or tumulus itself rises in the shape of a truncated hemisphere to
a height of 39 feet. The summit is a level area, measuring 34 feet across, and
surrounded by a circular railing or barrier of stones, which enclosed a square Tu
or reliquary, 11½ feet square, and this in its turn enclosed a circular support for
the sacred and symbolic umbrella that always crowned these edifices.
At a distance of 9½ feet from the base, the tope is encircled by a rail, eleven feet
high, and consisting apparently of one hundred pillars, exclusive of the
gateways. Each pillar seems to have been the gift of an individual, and even the
rails between them have apparently been contributed by different persons. The
rail or circle is devoid of sculpture; but four gateways which were added to it
about the Christian era are covered with sculptured work of the most elaborate
kind.
The human figures represented in these sculptures belong in the main to two
great races. One of them is easily recognised as “Hindus,”—“meaning by that
term the civilized race who formerly occupied the valley of the Ganges, and
who, from their capitals of Ayodhyâ and Indraprastha or Pâtaliputra (Palibothra),
had been the dominant class in India for at least two thousand years before the
time to which we are now referring.” It may be taken as proved that these people
were originally pure immigrant Aryans, but by intermixture with other races
their blood took, as it were, a new colouring, though they did not lose the
civilisation and pre-eminence which they owed to their intellectual superiority.
We know them in the sculptures by their costume; by the dhoti, wrapped round
the loins exactly as it is worn now-a-days; the chadder over their shoulders; and
the turban on their heads. So much for the dress of the men; of the undress of the
women it is more difficult to speak. They are always decorated with enormous
bangles about the wrists and ankles, and strings of beads round the neck; but
with the exception of a bead belt round the body below the waist they wear little
body clothing. From this belt slips of cloth are sometimes suspended, more
generally at the sides or behind than in front,—and sometimes also a cloth not
unlike a dhoti, invariably of transparent texture. This scantiness of attire can