Notes on the Carvings on the Buddhist Rail-posts at Budh Gaya

By C. Horne, Esq. C.S.
Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal
Vol. XXXVI. part I, 1867 pp. 107-108



p. 107 In submitting to the Society the accompanying drawings of the more remarkable of the carvings the Buddhist rail-posts at Budh Gaya, some from the court-yard of the mahant, but chiefly from the little temple by the tower, I would beg to draw attention to some of them -- Plate, No. IV. Firstly.--The boat scene, almost identical with the one figured by Cumningham in the Bhilsa Topes. Secondly. -- The rest of the upper portion is of the same sheet, all of them copies, doubtless of Buddhist rails, pillars, and buildings. Here we find the round pointed arch, but this argues nothing, when we remember that there were imitations of wood work and of thatch and bamboos as in the cave of the rock temples of Barabur close by. p. 108 Thirdly. -- The central compartments are curious, but need little remark. At first I took them for astronomical emblems as signs of the zodiac, but I do not think they are. Fourthly. -- The lower ornament is nearly the same in all. Memo.-- Although drawn one over the other -- it does not follow that the identical three were upon one and the same rail-post. Plate No. V.-- The figure shewn as No. 2, to the left is rather unusual. It wants all the refinement of Buddha, and does not, I think, represent him -- There is another such figure let into the wall, as you enter the lower room in the great tower on the right hand, inside the doorway. The fifth sketch puzzled me. It is perhaps intended to represent a good trick. To the extreme left is, what I believe to be, the only remnant yet found in Benares of a Buddhist rail. It is much defaced, and obliterated with dirt and ghce, and stands nearly opposite to the door of the golden temple on the left hand of the street. The demon face to the extreme left of the centre one much resembles the Sarnath demon face; whilst the cornice is very bold, free. above the floor of the highest chamber, must have been built in, when the tower was built, and I should not assign any great age to it. The portion of the Singhasan or idol shrine drawn nearly to scale, and which shews the holes into which were set the fastenings of the metal covering, is very curious. It exactly corresponds in style to the whole of the exterior plaistering of the great tower, and in the event of the arches having been declare to be coeval with the tower, I must amend my former opinion, and would hold that the tower was rebuilt, interiorly arched, and wholly plaistered at or about 500 A.D. the date of Amara Sinha, when the original Buddhist railing included both the Bo tree and the tower. In conclusion, I may remark, that although my drawings are very defective, yet the original carvings are very rude, and clearly betoken their early execution.