In the present state of the stūpa these splendidly sculptured toranas contrast almost too strongly with the severe simplicity of the rest of the stūpa; but this was hardly the case when they were put up, for the whole of the dome of the stūpa was plastered, and no doubt finished with a fine surface to receive the fresco paintings by which the lay community were instructed in Buddhist doctrine and in sacred history as they processed round the dome which enshrined the holy relics. It is highly probable that the sculptures of the gateways were also finished with a fine coat of white stucco and painted. This was certainly the case with similar sculptures at Amarāvatī, and was the usual practice in India. These sculptures do not represent the beginnings of Indian art. There is a long history behind them, stretching back to the time when Aryan kings ruled in Babylon, and when the painter instead of the sculptor recorded the deeds of Aryan heroes. Buddhism did not originate the art of Sānchī and Bharhut any more than it created the wealth which Asoka and his successors lavished upon the Buddhist Order. The Buddha himself renounced the world and all its vanities, but the spiritual Sangha which he founded appropriated, for the purpose of its propaganda, the artistic heritage of the Aryan people in India.
Of the four gates of the stūpa, the southern one faced the steps ascending to the upper procession path, and thus was the exit for those who had finished the ritual of "turning the Wheel of the Law." When a stūpa had only one entrance, as is the case with the smaller stūpa No. 3, which adjoins the Great Stūpa, it was placed on the south. Probably this was invariably the case.[1]
- ↑ The question of orientation is a most important one for the understanding of the principles of Indian temple architecture and iconography.
