Mr. Fergusson asks, what are we to infer from these facts? Is it that the Naga, or
serpent, was the god of the aborigines, whom the conquering Hindus adopted as
their own deity, and pretended that it was for them he reserved his patronage and
support? We must recollect that the Topes were built and the sculptures carved
by Hindus, and that there is no representation of a Hindu doing honour to a
snake; on the contrary, the snake always does homage to the Hindu.
Shall we conclude, then, that the Hindus were the real Naga-worshipping people,
and that it was they who enforced serpent-worship on the Dasyus? A conquered
people have not infrequently imposed their language, laws, and religion on their
conquerors.
It is, perhaps, impossible to answer these questions: a cloud of obscurity hangs
over the whole subject of Snake-worship; but we take it to have been the old and
prevalent faith of the aborigines of India prior to the Aryan immigration, and we
believe that the Aryans adopted it more and more generally as they mixed more
and more widely with the Hindus, and their blood became less and less pure. It is
not mentioned in the Vedas; there is scarcely an allusion in the Râmâyana; in the
Mahâbâhrata it occupies a considerable space; it appears timidly at Sanchi in the
first century of the Christian era; is triumphant at Amravati in the fourth; and
might have become the dominant faith of India had it not been elbowed from its
pride of place by Vishnuism and Sivaism, which took its position when it fell
together with the Buddhism to which it had allied itself so closely.
We turn to the celebrated Tope at Amravati, a town situated on the river Kishna.
The dimensions of the Tope are 195 feet for inside diameter of the outer circle,
and 165 feet for that of the inner. The procession path is paved with slabs 13 feet
long, and the inner rail is 2 feet wide. It has four gateways, and projecting about
30 feet beyond the outer rail; but these are in so dilapidated a condition that their
size cannot be accurately ascertained.
These circles, or circular bas-reliefs, from the intermediate rails of the outer
enclosure are thus described:
In the upper circle on the right hand side a group of Buddhist priests, in their
yellow robes, may be seen worshipping. In front two supple women, such as so
frequently occur in these sculptures, bend in attitudes of adoration, and on the