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

54

BUDDHIST

PROPAGANDA

most successful

propagandists of

Buddhism amongthe un-

culturednon-Aryan masses
;

foritiseasyto

believethatthese

delightful old-world tales appealed

more strongly

to popular

imaginationthan

theabstract philosophy

oftheVedas,especi-

allyas the doctrine taught

by them relieved

the people from

theintolerablesacrificialritual

oftheBrahmans.

The Brahman philosopher

taught his disciples as they

went

the dailyround of thevillage

to think ofthe fourgates

asthe

fourVedas.' TheBuddhist

teacherstruckamorehuman

note

when he substituted the Four Events

in the life of the

Aryan hero, the

Enlightened One; and at the

same time he

respected the esoteric

teaching of Vedic philosophy

by in-

venting aformof aniconic

symbolism which met the natural

desireof theartistto

visualise his spiritual thoughts. When

this

symbolism

is rightly understood, it is easy to read the

sculpturesofBharhutand

Sanchiasanarrative of the life of

Sakiya

Muni and

his

previous

existences on earth,and also

as an exposition of the teaching of the Hinayana school of

Buddhism. The sculptures

of

Amaravati represent a later

development of Buddhistphilosophy when the prohibition
of

anthropomorphic symbolism
was

removed

from Indo-Aryan

religiousritualbythepropagation

of

the

tenets

of

theMahayana

school.

1

Originallythree,

correspondingtothethreebarsoftheVedic

sacrificialrailwhich

appearsintheAsokan
stdpas. AfourthVeda—theAtharva
—wassubsequentlyrecognised,

andatAmaravatithe
sculpturefrequentlyrepresentsfour
barsintherail.