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

TOWN AND VILLAGE

GATEWAYS

29

It is

evidently part

of

the defences

of the town or fortress-

palaceof King

Suddhodana. Above the toran, ortorans (for

itmust

havebeendoubled tocarrythesuperstructure), isbuilt

a

guard-house,with the usual barrel-vaulted roof

and framed

balustrade, madeinthesamewayas the

wooden

walls

of the

town. This gatewayis clearly the wooden

prototype of the

guard-houses of later Hindu and Muhammadan fortresses,

with

their naubat-khdna, or music-gallery, where the royal

drummers announced the King's going and coming at any

state function, and sounded the

alarm incaseofattack.

But the origin of the toran

may be taken farther back than

the time of Buddha to the gate-

way of the Vedic Indian village.

Here its practical

use

would also

befordefence,andasawatch-tower

upon which the village sentinels

could easilyclamber to survey

the

surrounding country and to give

thealarm incase ofa sudden raid

upon

their crops or

cattle. There

wasmagicintheswastika,

which is introduced

into the gate-

waysofBharhutand Sanchi(see

plan,fig.

9),

becauseit

was a

practical

device

for strengthening the

defence ofthe village

entrances.

The

symbolical meaning, as an

indication of the

path of the sun across the

heavens, and the

propitious

direction for the priest or pious

pilgrim to circumambulate,

grew
into it gradually

with the evolution

ofAryan religious

ritual.

Theconstruction

ofthewooden

rail,andofthestone

imi-

tation of it, isshown in fig.

10. Itmay

beobserved thatthe

form into
which

the horizontal

bars is shaped

is exactly that

Fig.

9.—PlanoftheGreatSanchiStupa

(from

Fergusson's

"

History").