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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 22, p. 28.

28 .SANCHI gates covered with carving both illustrative and decorative. To the north and south originally stood two monoliths, which may have borne edicts of Asoka, one of which near the east gate was still entire in 1862 and measured 15 feet z inches in height. Just inside each gate is a nearly life-size figure of one of the Dhyani Buddhas ; but unfortunately they have been moved, and no longer occupy their original positions. The carved gates are the most striking features of the edifice. They stand facing the four cardinal points, and measure 28 feet 5 inches to the top of the third architrave,, and with the ornamentation above, 32 feet I I inches. They are cut in a white sandstone rather softer than the red stone used in the mound, and are profusely carved with scenes from the Jataka stories and other legends. It is noteworthy that Buddha himself is nowhere delineated. Bodhi trees or footprints alone represent him; of the meditating or preaching figures common in later Buddhist sculpture there is no trace. The construction of the mound is assigned to 250 B. c., and it was probably erected by Asoka. The gates, judging from the inscriptions upon them, are slightly earlier than the beginning of the Christian era. Of the history of Sanchi we know nothing. Neither of the Chinese pilgrims, Fa Hian or Hiuen Tsiang, makes any mention of the place, while the Mahavamso merely narrates a tale of how Asoka, when sent as a young man to be governor of Ujjain, married the daughter of the Sreshtin or headman of Chaitiyagiri or Vasanta-nagar, of which the ruins, now known as Beshnagar, may be seen near BHILSA, but no mention is made of this stupa. Close by are the ruins of a small temple, built in Gupta style, and probably of the fourth century A. n. Beside it stand the ruins of a chaitya hall or Buddhist church, which is of great importance archi- tecturally, being the only structural building of its kind known to us, the other examples of chaitya halls being rock-cut. All that remains are a series of lofty pillars and the foundations of the wall, which show that it was terminated by a solid apse. To the north-east of the great stupa formerly stood a smaller one, which is now a heap of bricks with a carved gateway before it. To the east on a kind of terrace are several shrines with colossal figures of Buddha. On the western slope of the hill, down which a rough flight of steps leads, is the smaller shipa, surrounded by a railing without gates. Several relic caskets and more than four hundred epigraphical records have been discovered, the last being cut on the railings and gates. A fragment of an edict pillar of the emperor Asoka, carrying a record similar to that on the Allahabad pillar and the pillar lately discovered at Sarnath, has also been unearthed here. The record is addressed to the Maha-matra in charge of Malwa, and appears to refer to the up- keep of a road leading to or round the stupa. Great interest attaches