gallery, or naubat khāna, where, in the words of Asoka's edict, "the sound of the drum of the Dhamma was heard instead of the war-drum," announcing the great festivals or general meetings of the Sangha. In front of the porch there were two colossal "Persepolitan" or lotus pillars, differing from those of Asoka's time by having a shaft of sixteen sides. The right-hand pillar, however, has disappeared, and a small modern shrine dedicated to Dargā occupies the place where it stood. The fifteen pillars on either side of the nave are of the same order, only the shafts are octagonal. The symbolism has been explained above. The pillar is the world-lotus, springing from the mystic vase containing the cosmic ether (ākāsa), and supporting the Tusitā heavens where the Devas reside, who are here shown mounted on their respective vehicles (vāhan) and watching over the meetings of the Sangha just as in bygone ages they looked down upon the Vedic rites from their thrones above the sacrificial posts.
The sculpture, like that of Sānchī, is remarkably robust, and free from the dry academic mannerisms of the Gandhara school, proving that there was an original and highly developed school of figure-sculpture in India before the Hellenistic sculptors of the Kushān court broke the tradition which made it unlawful for artists to represent the person of the Blessed One. The seven pillars behind the stūpa have plain octagonal shafts without caps or bases. The stūpa itself, at the far end of the nave, crowned by the reliquary and the royal umbrella in wood, is also severely simple both in form and decoration, the only sculpture upon it being the two bands representing the railings of a double procession path. The surface was finished by a coating of fine chunam, simulating marble with its fine polish, which may have served as a ground for
