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

98

VISHNU SHRINE

AT BODH-GAYA

showersupon her,takes into

his keeping.

Asshe

risesfrom

the cosmic oceanand prepares to

fling

herselfupon Vishnu's

breast,the Devas shout triumphant

hymns

andthe powersof

darkness fling

themselves down into

the

underworld where

theydwell.

Thewholesite of

Sarnathwascovered

with innumerable

brick-builtand monolithic

sttipas of diff'erent

dimensions, and

itisprobablethatpairs

ofVishnuandSiva

symbolswereoften

placedthere bythe samedevotee.

Perhaps some

ofthe brick

bases nowremainingwill prove to

have belonged

to Vishnu

shrines, instead of stfipas,forthe

tallsikharas whichcrowned

themweremucheasiertodestroythan

themoresolidstructure

ofthesttipa.

Thestructuralimportanceand

historicalinterestattaching

tothegreatVishnushrineof

Bodh-Gayiareunique. Seeing

thatall thesymbolism of

Buddhist artwas derived from the

ancient Indo-Aryan tradition, the

fitness of buildingashrine

to symbolisetheVaishnavaaspect

of the Blessed One at the

spotwhere

the Buddhahadovercomethe powersofMara,the

Evil One,

needs

no further

explanation.

It was an

im-

memorial

tradition

to

mark

the

site of

a

famous Bodhi

tree

witha Vishnu shrine,

and

the place where the yogi who sat

underit

wascrematedwithaSivashrine,

orstfipa. Fergusson's

chronological estimate ofthebuilding is an amusing

attempt

to

reconcile the inconsistencies

of

his

stylisticcategories. He

had

toexplainhow the

"

Hindu

"

sikhara,

typicalof

"

aDasyu

province,"came tobe builton oneofthe

mostsacred sites of

Buddhism. He surmounted the

difficulty by calling the

Vishnusikharaa sttipa: in the

"

Cave

Templesof India"he

declared that itwas

"

evidently

of foreign design, as thereis

nothing of the same style in India,

eitherbefore or after it."

He adds that "anyoneatall familiar

withthe architectureof

the Eastwould knowthatit was

builtbythe Burmesein the