From several passages in the Pali Buddhistical annals, it would appear that topes were in exist ence prior to Sakya's advent, and that they were objects of much reverence to the people. Sakya himself especially inculcated the maintenance of these ancient chaitya, and the continuance of the accustomed offerings and wdrship. Ia the sixth of his precepts to the people of Visali, the Pas salm of Ptolemy, he enjoins them to maintain, respect, reverence, and make offerings to the chaitya, and to keep up the ancient offerings without diminution. Sakya acknowledged the holy Muni, Karkutsanda or Krakuchanda, Kanaka, and Kasyapa, as his innnediate predecessors. St'hupas had been erected over their relics in the neighbourhood of Kapila an1 of Benares. St'hapas had also been erected over supreme monarchs prior to Sakya's advent, for Sakya particularly informs his disciple Ananda that over the remains of a Chakravarti raja they build the st'hupa at a spot where four principal roads meet.
It is clear, therefore, that the tope or tumulus was a common form of tombs at that period. In fact, the tope, as its name implies, is nothing more than a regularly-built cairn or pile of stones, which was undoubtedly the oldest form of funeral memento. The topes were therefore of three distinct kinds—lst, the dedicatory, which were consecrated to the Supreme Buddha; 2d, tho strictly funereal, which contained the ashes of the dead ; and 3d, the memorial, which were built upon celebrated spots. Of the dedicatory topes, as it is improbable that 'any deposit would have been placed in them, we may plausibly conclude that the largest topes, sech as thoso of Sanchi, Satdhara, and Bhopal., were consecrated to the Supreme Invisible .A.di-Buddha. Of the memorial topes, little is at present known. It seems nearly certain, howevertthat the great Manikyala tope was of this kind, for an i nscription extracted from it, which begins with G otnangasa, of the abandoned body,' undoubtedly refers to Sakya's abandonment of his body to a hungry lion. This tATe there fore dates earlier than the period of la Iliatt's Indian pilgrinutgo, in A.D. 400. The funereal topes were of course the most numerous, as they were built of all sizes and kiuds of material, according to the rank of the deceased and the means of his fraternity. At Ilhojpur, the topes occupy four distinct satges or platforms of the hill. Tho largest topes, six in number, occupy the uppermost stage, and were, it is believed, dedicated to Buddha; that is, either to tho celestial Buddha, Adinath, or to the relics of tho mortal Buddha Sakya. This view is borne out by the fact that the largest tope contained no deposit, and that the second and third sized topes yielded crystal boxes, one of which, shaped like a st'llupa, contained only a minute portion of human bone smaller than a pea. The gateways of the Sanchi tope belong to the first half of the first century of our era. The Amaravati sculptures are 300
years later than those at Sanehi, but the frescoes in the Ajunta caves are 300 years later than Amaravatt, and belong to the time immediately preceding the decline of Buddhism.
The topes at Amaravati, Bharhut, Buddha Gaya, Muttra, and Sanchi have, as a feature of their style, highly ornamental rails. One at Bharhut was nine feet high.
Amamvati, its central dhagoba, was small, only 30 feet to 35 feet in diameter, or about 100 feet in circumference and 50 feet high. Amaravati was visited in tbe year 639 by the Chinese pilgrim Hiwen Thsang. It had then been deserted for more than a century, but he describes its magnificence in glowing terms. Many of its sculptured slabs bad been brought to Madras, which Surgeon-Major Balfour placed in the museum that he founded, and then sent them to England, where they have been erected, with some others since received, on the wall of the great staircase of the British Museum.
Sarnath, a town near Benares, is famed for a Buddhist tope or st'hupa. It contains no relics, and was erected to mark a place where Buddha stayed. It is 93 feet in diameter, built of stones clamped together with iron. It is said to have been destroyed by the Muhammadaus, A.D. 1017, before its completion.
Near Bhilsa, a town in Bhopal, are five or six groups of topes—at Sanchi, Sonari, Satdhara, Bhojpur, and Andher. They are in a district not exceeding ten miles E. and W., and six miles N. and S., and are in number between 25 and 30. The chief is the great tope of Sanchi, attributed to Asoka. Some of the topes contain relics of friends of Buddha and of missionaries. The Sanchi tope is 106 feet in diameter, and 42 feet in height. Ono at SatAlhara is 101 feet in diameter. They are the best preserved of all the topes in India. The four gateways or torans of the Sanchi tope are covered with the tnost elaborate sculptures. The pillars are 33 feet to 35 feet in height. The sculptures generally represent scenes from the life of Buddha when he was Prince Siddharta, albo scenes from the Jataka or legeuds ; likewise the worship of trees, of dahgopas or relic shriues, the chakm or wheel, the emblem of Dharma, of Devi, or Sri, who became tho Lakshmi of the following Ilindu religion. The trisul emblem and the sacred feet are shown, and there are sieges represented, and fighting and triumphs, aud others portray in,g men and women drinking and love-making. At Sanchi, most of the women are figured nude, while at Bharhut no figure is entirely nude. The southern and oldest of the gateways of the tope at Sanchi was almost certainly erected during the reign of the first of the Andhra kings, in the first quartet. of the lst century ; and the other three topes were erected in the course of that century. The last of the architectural monu ments of this dynasty was the completion of the rail at Amaravati, about A.D. 450.