S'1"11UPA. SANSK. A Buddhist tumulus or tope, a mound, burrow, or funeral pile, a hemi spherical shrine, or a tumulus erected over any of the sacred relics of Buddha, or on spots conse crated as the scenes of his acts. The sehttpa in Pali becomes stupo, and itt Anglo-Indian phraseology tope. We thus hear constantly of the Ilhilsa topes, and the Sarnath and the Sandi topes. The word is front a Sanskrit root to heap, to erect. The seltupa or dagoba or topes of India are monumental shrines or receptacles for the relics of Buddha, or for those of the Sthavira or i patriarchs of the sect, or to commemorate 1 some historical event or legend. They consist of a cylindrical base suppottieg a hernisplictical ' dome called the garblia. On the top of this was placed the Tee, a square stone box, usually solid, covered by a series of thin slabs, each projecting over the one below it, and with an umbrella raised over the whole. General Cunningham says the Pali form is Thupo, also Thupa or Thuva, in the early Aryan inscriptions from the Panjab The term now used is Thup for a " • tolerably perfect building, awl Thupi for a ruined mound. The great st'hupa or Buddhist inonu ment of Manikyala WM first made known by the journey of the Honourable Mountstuart Elphin stone, and has since been explored by Generals Ventura and Court. The name is said to have been derived from Raja Man or 3lanik, who is said to have erect,ed it. The pilgrim Fa Hiatt states that at two days' journey to the east of Taxila is the spot where Buddha gave his body to feed a starving tiger. But Sung-yun fixes the scene of this exploit at eight days' journey to the south-east of the capital of Gaudhara, which is a very exact description of the bearing and distance of Manikyala, either from Peshawur or from Haslanag,ar. General Cunningham has identified the great st'llupa of the ` body-offering ' with the tnonument that was opened by General Court, which, according to the inscription found inside, was built in the year 20, during the reign of the great Indo-Scythian prince Kanishka, shortly before the beginning of the Christian cm. Mani
kyala was therefore one of the most fatnous places in the Panjab at a very early period ; but he thinks that it must have been the site of a number of largo religious establishments rather than that of a great city. The people are un animous in their statements that the city was destroyed by fire ; and this belief, whether based on tradition or conviction, is corroborated by the quantities of charcoal and ashes which are found amongst all the ruined buildings. It was also amply confirmed by the excavations which he made in the great monastery to the north of General Court's tope. He found the plaster of the walls blackened by fire, and the wrought blocks of kankar Bluestone turned into quicklime. The pino timbers of the roofs also were easily recoguised by their charred fragments and ashes. General Cunningham discovered nothing during his researches that offered any clue to the pro bable period of the destruction of these buildings; but as this part of the country had fallen into the power of the Kashmirian kings even before the time of lliwen Thsaug, he was inclined to attribute their destruction rather to Brahmanieal malignity than to Muhammadan intolerance. Vaisali is supposed by General Cunningham to lie to the east of the Gandak, where we find the village of Besarh, with an old ruined fort which is still called Raja-Bisal-ka-garlt, or the fort of Raja Visala, who was the repated founder of the ancient Vaisali. The ruined fort of Besarh thus presents such a perfect coincidence of name, position, and dimensions with the ancient city of Vaisali, that there can be no reasonable doubt of their identity. In one of the Buddhist legends quoted by Burnout, Buddha proceeds with Ananda to the Chapala st'hupa, and, seating himself under a tree, thus addresses his disciple : How beauti ful, 0 Ananda, is the city of Vaisali, the land of the Vriji,' etc.—Ferg. and Burg. p. 18.