[43] ‘Madras Report,’ p. 90.
[44] These remarks must not be taken as applying to sculpture also. It is quite true that no stone sculptures have yet been found in India of an earlier date than the age of Asoka; but, as will be seen in the sequel, the perfection the Indian artists had attained in stone sculpture when they executed the bas-reliefs at Bharhut (B.C. 200), shows a familiarity with the material that could only be attained by long practice.
[45] No mention of temples, or, indeed, of buildings is, I believe, found in the Vedas, and though both are frequently alluded to, and described in the Epic Poems and the Puranas, this hardly helps us; first because, like all verbal descriptions of buildings, they are too vague to be intelligible, and secondly, because there is no proof that the passages containing these descriptions may not have been interpolated after—probably long after—the Christian Era.
[46] I believe I was the first to ascertain these facts from a personal inspection of the monuments themselves. They were communicated to the Royal Asiatic Society in a paper I read on the ‘Rock-cut Temples of India,’ in 1842. Every subsequent research, and every increase of our knowledge, has tended to confirm those views to such an extent that they are not now disputed by any one acquainted with the literature of the subject, though some writers do still indulge in rhapsodies about the primæval antiquity of the caves, and their connection with those of Egypt, &c. Till all this is put on one side, no clear idea can be obtained of the true position of the art in India.
[47] From two Sanscrit words, Dhatu, a relic, and Garbha (Pali, Gabbhan), the womb, receptacle, shrine of a relic. (Turnour, ‘Mahawanso,’ p. 5.) The word Pagoda is probably a corruption of Dagoba.
[48] In Nepal, according to Hodgson, and, I believe, in Thibet, the monuments which are called Stupas in India are there called Chaityas. Etymologically, this is no doubt the correct designation, as Chaitya, like Stupa, means primarily a heap or tumulus, but it also means a place of sacrifice or religious worship—an altar from Chíta, a heap, an assemblage, a multitude, &c. (Monier Williams’ ‘Sanscrit Dictionary’ sub voce). Properly speaking, therefore, these caves ought perhaps to be called “halls containing a chaitya,” or “chaitya halls,” and this latter term will consequently be used wherever any ambiguity is likely to arise from the use of the simple term Chaitya.
[49] These inscriptions have been published in various forms and at various times by the Asiatic Societies of Calcutta and London (‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ vol. vi. p. 566, et seqq.; ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. xii. p. 153, et seqq.) and in various other publications, but always mixed up with extraneous matters. It is, however, very much to be regretted that a carefully-edited translation is not issued in some separate form easily accessible to the general public. An absolutely authentic and unaltered body of Buddhist doctrine, as it stood 250 years before the birth of Christ, would be one of the most valuable contributions possible to the religious history of the modern world, and so much has been already done that the task does not seem difficult. Among other things, they explain to us negatively why we have so little history in India in these days. Asoka is only busied about doctrines. He does not even mention his father’s name; and makes no allusion to any historical event, not even those connected with the life of the founder of the religion. Among a people so careless of genealogy, history is impossible.
[50] ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ vol. vi. p. 794.
[51] Ibid., plate 40.
[52] Ibid., p. 969, et seqq.