All this will be clearer as we proceed. Meanwhile it seems probable that with this, which is certainly the most splendid specimen of its class, we must conclude our history of Buddhist rails. No later example is known to exist; and the Gandhara topes, which generally seem to be of this age or later, have all their rails attached to their sides in the shape of a row of pilasters. If they had any figured illustrations, they must have been in the form of paintings on plaster on the panels between the pilasters. This, indeed, was probably the mode in which they were adorned, for it certainly was not with sculptures, but we cannot understand any Buddhist monument existing anywhere, without the jatakas or legends being portrayed on its walls in some shape or other. At Sarnath all reminiscences of a rail had disappeared, and a new mode of ornamentation introduced, which bore no resemblance to anything found on the earlier topes. Although, therefore, our history of the rails may finish about A.D. 500, it by no means follows that many examples may not yet be brought to light belonging to the seven and a half centuries that elapsed between that date and the age of Asoka. As they all certainly were sculptured to a greater or less extent, when they are examined and published we may hope to have an ancient pictorial history of India for those ages nearly as complete as that possessed by any other country in the world. At present, however, we only know of ten or twelve examples, but they are so easily thrown down and buried that we may hope to find many more whenever they are looked for, and from them to learn the whole story of Buddhist art. NOTE.--The central crowning ornament in Woodcut No. 33, page 96, is a chakra or wheel in the centre, with trisul emblems right and left. On the upper beam, five dagobas and two trees are worshipped; on the intermediate blocks, Sri and a chakra; on the middle beam are seven sacred trees, with altars; on the intermediate blocks, Sri and the chakra again. The lower beam is wholly occupied by the early scenes in the Wessantara jataka, which is continued in the rear. The subjects on the pillars have all been described in ‘Tree and Serpent Worship,’ but are on too small a scale to be distinguishable in the woodcut. [Illustration: 40. Trisul Emblem. (From a sculpture at Amravati.)] CHAPTER V. CHAITYA HALLS. CONTENTS. Behar Caves--Western Chaitya Halls, &c. Although, if looked at from a merely artistic point of view, it will probably be found that the rails are the most interesting Buddhist remains that have come down to our time, still, in an historical or architectural sense, they are certainly surpassed by the chaitya halls. These are the temples of the religion, properly so called, and the exact counterpart of the churches of the Christians, not only in form, but in use.