Buddhistic Art: Tr/limp/al attained a greater importance in the middle of the third century B. c., when King Acoka became a convert and zealously sought its extension. The most ancient monuments extant appear to date from his time, and these exhibit a suf ficiently primitive series of forms: they are the triumphal columns which King Acoka erected in great numbers throughout the Ganges regions in honor of the Buddhist creed. These columns are about 3 metres (to feet), in diameter at the bottom and 13 metres (42 feet) high, and diminish at top to less than 2 metres (6y; feet) thickness. Capitals similar to the Persian and ornaments which recall the Assyrian form a termination upon which sit lions that resemble those of Western Asia. As Acoka's relations with the West are known, we may believe that the forms, and perhaps the idea for the erection, of the monumental works also caine from that quarter.
Dhagobas or we not also find in the second kind of struc tures an echo of Western Asia? Are the dhagobas (topes, stupas) echoes of the domes of that region ? Are they not related to the stepped amids, the tombs of the great, of that more western land, which had a temple upon the uppermost platform ? Do we meet again with the primeval tumulus in a fresh array ? Or is it, as we are taught is certain, the water-bladder, with Buddha the symbol of the instability of all earthly things, that is displayed in the form of these buildings, as it is in the knob or umbrella on the summit of Buddha's symbolic fig-tree, under the shadow of which he delivered himself to meditation ? Afoka's Acoka parted Buddha's remains into eighty four thousand parts, distributed them among all the cities in the country, and ordained the erection of topes around them. These are hemispheres of masonry; at Bhilsa there is a group of thirty or forty, each built upon a low base, and usually surmounted by a platform. At the summit is a small globular structure (tee), a memorial emblem of Buddha's holy fig tree.
Tope qf largest tope of this group is near San chi (pi. 17, Jig. 7); it has a cylindrical base 4 metres (13 feet) in height, on the top of which a platform 2 metres feet) wide surrounds the dome, the diameter of which is 4o metres (131 feet). The tee has disappeared from the summit, but at a distance of 3 metres (io feet) from the base there is a stone enclosure which has four great portals placed in front of four openings; these portals reproduce forms that are usual only in iipod construction, which is here perfectly copied. Inscriptions upon this tope,
which was ascribed to King Acoka, go back only to the commencement of the Christian era. The other topes of this group, which are described as somewhat progressive in their style, are far smaller. The next largest has a diameter of 14 metres (46 feet), while the smallest is less than 2 metres feet) across.
Other Groups of Amravati, not far from Madras, stands a large tope similar to that of Sanchi, and likewise surrounded by smaller ones. There is also a great number of topes in Ceylon. The Afahavanca relates that for the Great Tope of Anuradhapoora, which King Dooshta gamani built about the middle of the second century B. c., a deep founda tion was first constructed, composed of courses of stone, loam, bricks, crystal, mortar, and of iron and silver plates, and that the whole was trodden down by elephants. Upon this the tope was built, of bricks covered with stucco. There still remains a group of such topes at Anuradhapoora, the largest of which is supposed to be the great work of Dooshtagamani; this is placed upon a platform i4o metres (about 46o feet) square and rose to a height of about So metres (262 feet), but more than the half has disappeared. Some are still very well preserved. Other groups of topes have been discovered in Afghanistan as well as in Northern India, at Manikyala and Beim, all massive domes like those described. Their age cannot be very great, since their examination has brought to light Roman and Sasanian coins belonging to the period from too E. C. to the sixth century of our era.
Conventual topes do not stand alone: with them are grouped conventual structures, the most ancient of which, like the other buildings of the country, were probably of wood. The ascetic tendency, the love of meditation, which characterized the religious life of the Hin dus must have suggested to many that caves in the mountains were suitable places in which to lead a life retired from the world, and thus the cave-life developed itself into a mark of religious fervor, and the cave itself into a monumental structure. At earlier periods it may have been necessary to widen a natural cavern to make its entrance regular, and sometimes, when it suited the inhabitants, to protect the roof by means of wooden beams and posts where the stone did not appear to be suf ficiently secure. Out of this mode of living there developed a unique style of architecture which is peculiarly Indian.