than Asoka's time, they will serve to illustrate the form which the Aryan royal tomb assumed at the beginning of the Buddhist era.
The dome—the aṇḍa, or egg—which was regarded as a symbol of the universal dome or cosmos—is raised on a high plinth. In a structural stūpa there would have been two procession paths, one at the base of the dome in close proximity to the holy relics, and another at the ground level. This is the case at Sānchī, but here the rail enclosing the procession path is only carved as an ornamental band. The dome has become slightly bulbous in shape, a later development of the hemispherical stūpa. The railing round the actual procession path at the ground level, if there was one, was probably of wood, for this was a transition period when lithic forms were often combined with their wooden prototypes. In all the stūpas the symbol of royalty, the umbrella, which crowned them, is missing; and in most cases the relic casket, or harmīkā, which served as a pedestal for it, has been destroyed, but in the nearest stūpa in Pl. I, fig. B, the harmīkā is intact. This is a very elaborate one; the simpler and earlier type shown in fig. A is from a stūpa in the chaītya hall at Bedsā in the same neighbourhood. The vedikā railing which surrounded the relic casket is represented as an ornament: above this is a series of slabs placed one over the other, and gradually increasing in size, so as to form a kind of altar. The top is shown to be enclosed by another railing in the middle of which the shaft of the umbrella was fixed.
The same peculiar form is carved at Kārlē, and in many other early Buddhist chaītya halls, as a throne or platform for the Devas, who are seated on the capitals of the pillars enclosing the Chapter-house of the Order. Its connection with Vedic ritual can be traced in the
