sacrificial hut, or the car of royalty with the sikhara roof, naturally became the principal shrine of the Sūrya cult. It was thus that the stūpa became the sacred symbol of Buddhism, for the early school of Buddhism, the Hīnayāna, was essentially pessimistic, teaching the vanity of earthly desires. And in taking over the symbols of the Chandra cult, Buddhism adopted the whole symbolic framework of Vedic sacrificial rites, though the burnt offerings and oblations were no longer to be considered as the means of salvation; moksha, or liberation, was to be obtained by the suppression of the fires of evil thought and action, of lust, hatred and envy, anger and wrong thinking.[1]
All the symbols and metaphors commonly described as Buddhist—the wheel, the trisula, the railing, the eightfold path, etc., as well as the form and planning of the stūpa and its accessories, were Aryan, and connected with the Vedic rites of the Sūrya and Chandra cults before they became Buddhist. If one considers the essential character of the Vedic sacrificial rites, it will become clear why Buddhist teaching brought about a radical change in Aryan art practice, so that the art of the Aryan royal craftsmen was no longer an art of wood and clay, bambu and thatch, but an art of fine masonry and brickwork, of which we see the first development at Bharhut, Sānchī, Kārlē, and elsewhere.
In the first place, Asoka's adoption of Buddhism as the Aryan state religion made the stūpa with all its accessories a permanent memorial and shrine of the Blessed One, instead of the temporary resting-place of the remains of a Kshatriya chieftain. The Buddhist Church needed more durable structures than the improvised tabernacles provided for Vedic sacrifices. Wood retained all its practical advantages as building
- ↑ Buddhism, Mrs. Rhys Davids, p. 181.
