History of Indian and Eastern ArchitectureFergusson, James
History
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture
Fergusson, James
Architecture -- India; Architecture, Asian
When excavating at Muttra, General Cunningham found several pillars of a
rail, which, judging from the style, is most probably of about the same
age as that at Bharhut, or it may be a little more modern, but still
certainly anterior to the Christian Era. The pillars, however, are only
4½ ft. high, and no trace of the top rail nor of the intermediate
discs has been found. Each pillar is adorned by a figure of a naked
female in high relief, singularly well executed, richly adorned with
necklaces and bangles, and a bead belt or truss round their middles.
Each stands on a crouching dwarf, and above each, in a separate
compartment, are the busts of two figures, a male and female, on a
somewhat smaller scale, either making violent love to each other, or
drinking something stronger than water.[123]
Though the sculptures at Sanchi and Cuttack have made us familiar with
some strange scenes, of what might be supposed an anti-Buddhistical
tendency, this rail can hardly be Buddhist. We do not, indeed, know if
it was straight or circular, or to what class of building it was
attached. If part of a palace, it would be unobjectionable. But if it
belonged to a temple, it ought to have been dedicated to Krishna, not to
Buddha. It is not, indeed, impossible that a form of Vishnuism may have
co-existed with Buddhism in the neighbourhood of Bindrabun, even at this
early age. But these are problems, the existence of which is only just
dawning upon us, and which cannot be investigated in a work like the
present.
SANCHI.
[Illustration: 29. Rail at Sanchi. (From a Drawing by Gen. Cunningham.)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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