The Bhilsa Topes or Buddhist Monuments of Central India

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About the Book There are several Buddhist remains and monuments within about 20 km radius of Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh. Of these, Sanchi is the most famous and best known primarily because of the magnificence of the monuments, not withstanding the fact that there are several other Buddhist monuments in the area which are no less important. Perhaps it could be due to their rather dilapidated condition and location in remote, out-of-the way spots. These monuments are located at Sonari, Satdhara, Murelkhurd and Bawalia-Hakeemkhedi, all in Raisen District of Madhya Pradesh. Alexander Cunningham has described these monuments in the present volume. This work is the first serious attempt to trace Buddhist history through its architectural remains. It also provides a historical account of the rise, progress and decline of Buddhism; The life and faith of Sakya: The synods; Buddhist schisms; The reign of Asoka; The symbols of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and many other important facets of Buddhism. About the Author Major General Sir Alexander Cunningham KCIE CSI (1814-1893) was a British Army engineer with the Bengal Engineer Group who later took an interest in the history and archaeology of India. In 1861, he was appointed to the newly created position of archaeological surveyor to the government of India; and he founded and organised what later became the Archaeological Survey of India. He wrote numerous books and monographs and made extensive collections of artefacts. Some of his collections were lost, but most of the gold and silver coins and a fine group of Buddhist sculptures and jewellery were bought by the British Museum in 1894. Preface THE discoveries made by Lieutenant Maisey and myself, amongst the numerous Buddhist monuments that still exist around Bhilsa, in Central India, are described-imperfectly, I fear-by myself in the present work. To the Indian antiquary and his- torian, these discoveries will be, I am willing to think, of very high importance; while to the mere English reader they may not be uninteresting, as the massive mounds are surrounded by mysterious circles of stone pillars, recalling attention at every turn to the early earthworks, or barrows, and the Druidical colonnades of Britain.

In the Buddhistical worship of trees displayed in the Sánchi bas-reliefs, others, I hope, will see (as well as myself) the counterpart of the Druidical and adopted English reverence for the Oak. In the horse-shoe temples of Ajanta and Sanchi many will recognize the form of the inner colonnade at Stone- henge. More, I suspect, will learn that there are Cromlechs in India as well as in Britain;t that the Brahmans, Buddhists, and Druids all believed in the transmigration of the soul; that the Celtic language was undoubtedly derived from the Sanskrit; and that Buddha (or Wisdom), the Supreme Being worshipped by the Buddhists, is probably (most probably) the same as the great god Buddwds, considered by the Welsh as the dispenser of good. These coincidences are too numerous and too striking to be accidental. Indeed, the Eastern origin of the Druids was sus- pected by the younger Pliny,† who says, "Even to this day Britain celebrates the magic rites with so many similar ceremonies, that one might suppose they had been taken from the Persians." The same coincidence is even more distinctly stated by Dionysius Periegetic, who says that the women of the British Amnite celebrated the rites of Dionysus, v. 375:- As the Bistonians on Apsinthus banks Shout to the clamorous Eiraphiñtes, Or, as the Indians on dark-rolling Ganges Hold revels to Dionysos the noisy So do the British women shout Evoë!

2. I have confined my observations chiefly to the religious belief taught by Sakya Muni, the last mortal Buddha, who died 543 n.c. There was, however, a more ancient Buddhism, which pre- vailed not only in India, but in all the countries The name of Druid may be taken as an example: Greek, Epus; Sanskrit, dru; Welsh, derw; Erse, dair: a tree, or onk tree. +Pliny, Nat. Hist. xxx. 1,-" Britannia hodie eam (magiam) attonite celebrat tantis ceremoniis, ut eam Persis dedisse videri possit."

**Contents and Sample Pages**