The reason is to be found in the Vedic tradition which was followed by Buddhist builders. In Vedic ritual the solar year was said to have two courses (ayanas), the northern course comprising the spring and summer, when the sun passes from south to north of the Equator, and the southern course when the year begins to wane as the sun appears to move towards the south.[1] The south, therefore, was the abode of the spirits of the dead, and the stūpa had its exit on the south, so that its ghostly inhabitant might pass through on its way to its final abode. For this reason we may conclude that the southern gateway of the Great Stūpa was the earliest one.
The northern one, however, is now the most complete, and on the whole the finest as a work of art, particularly with regard to the elephant capitals, which are much happier in composition and more structurally appropriate than the lions of the southern gateway, reproducing the capital of the imperial standard which Asoka placed at the entrance. It would seem as if the northern gateway was designed throughout and carefully supervised by one master-mason, while the others were, as the inscriptions testify, the joint gift of several donors, and evidently carried out in sections by different groups of craftsmen working independently. In these gateways, therefore, there is a tendency to
- ↑ See Barnett's Antiquities of India, p. 203.
The first care of the Indian temple-builder is to determine the orientation of the shrine in relation to that aspect of the deity which is to be worshipped. By the careful collection of data on the spot, it would be possible to establish a scientific classification of Indian temple architecture based upon Indian principles, and to throw much light on the history of Indian religious ritual. But Fergusson hardly alludes to the subject. His History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, and the official archæological reports and plans, only occasionally indicate the orientation of a building, so that the material they provide for the study of the subject is most meagre.
