The ancient and medieval architecture of India: a study of Indo-Aryan civilisation

50

BUDDHIST SYMBOLISM

wastransformedintothepyramidalTee(fig.
15),

whichwasonly

the BuddhistandJain

equivalent symbolforthemystictreeof

Vishnu,the cosmic tree, the tree of

wisdom, and the trysting

tree of thevillage
;

for all Indian artderives

ultimatelyfrom

thelife
ofthe

Aryanvillage.

Fergusson's ignorance ofthe

symbolismofIndianartled

himtointerpretthesculpturesof

Buddhiststdpasasrepresen-

tationsof"treeandserpentworship." MonsieurA.Foucher's

brilliant analysis ofthe sculptures ofthe

Sanchi gateway disposes of this fallacy,

whichhas been the

source of muchmis-

understanding

of

Indianartandreligion.

Heshowsthatthese

sculptures,insteadof

representing the

primitive animistic cult

ofwildaboriginalfollowersofthe

Buddha,

really embody the esoteric teaching of

Hinayana Buddhism, which was based

uponthe truespiritofVedicAryanphilo-

sophyinrefusingtopermittherepresenta-

tionoftheDeityinhuman form. Hero-

worship was a popular sentiment which

could not be ignored byAryan

religious

teachers;itwentdowntothe

veryfounda-

tionsofAryan religion, forthe

Kshatriya

chieftainwasthespiritual

leaderofhistribebefore

theBrahman

hierarchy became a political

power and developed

the philo-

sophical teachingof

the Vedas; and,

even then, the fighting

Kshatriyaoftenovercame

the Brahman with

his own

weapons

in philosophic encounters.

Both the Buddha

and

Krishna,

the herooftheMahabharata,

were Kshatriyas.

Itwas

notto

beexpectedthat theabstruse

speculations

ofAryan

philosophy

could bemadeintelligible

tothewhole

Indo-Aryan

community,

composedofsomanydifferent

intellectual

andracial

elements

;

Fig.15.—TheTeeofa

Stflpa.