mythological version of the events in Paradise.”
Mr. Deane, who lived before the days of Comparative Mythology, read into the
old fables a meaning which they are hardly capable of bearing. It is clear enough
that Serpent-worship had an astronomical origin; but we may agree with him that
it was as ancient and universal as the worship of the Sun, with which, indeed, it
was closely connected.
We shall now borrow a few illustrations of the character, extent, and significance
of Serpent-worship from Mr. Fergusson’s elaborate work,[49] in which he deals
particularly with the Topes at Sanchi and Amravati. But, first, a word or two in
explanation of the origin and purpose of the Topes will be desirable.
The era of stone architecture in India seems to have begun with the reign of
Asoka about 250 B.C. It is contemporaneous with the rise of Buddhism, whose
followers gradually usurped the place formerly occupied by the Aryans. The
Buddhist buildings then erected may be divided into three principal classes:
1st. Topes or Stupas, with their surrounding rails and lats:
2nd. Chaityas, which, in form and purpose, closely resemble the early Churches
of the Christians, though several of those cut in the rock were, in all probability,
excavated before the Christian era: and,
3rd. Viharas, or Monasteries, forming in the earliest times the dwellings of the
monks or priests who ministered in the Topes or Chaityas, but afterwards
becoming the independent abode of monastic communities, who had chapels or
oratories appropriated to their use within the walls of their monasteries.
We are here concerned only with the Tope or Stupa.
In its origin we suspect that it simply took the place of the mound or tumulus
which the Turanian and other races had from earliest ages been accustomed to
raise over the last resting-place of their dead. No such tumuli now exist in India,
having probably been washed away by the tropical rains or river-floods; but
some are still found in Afghanistan. The Indian type is distinguished from the
tumulus of other countries by its material and its shape. It is built of brick or
stone, in a rounded or conical form. It is distinguished also by the circumstance