History of mediæval art . gest among these, the tope of Sanchi{Fig. 72), has a lower diameter of only 36 m. and a height of 15 m.,nearly one-third of which latter dimension represents the elevationof the slightly diminished substructure. The summit of this tumu-lus was accessible by an inclined plane or a flight of steps, and wasoriginally provided with a balustrade. The solid dome, built ofbrick and clay, was faced with hewn stones coated with stucco,and, as is evident from representations of topes upon reliefs, eitherpainted or ornamented by sculptures. The before-mentioned rep- ARCHITECTURE
History of mediæval art . gest among these, the tope of Sanchi{Fig. 72), has a lower diameter of only 36 m. and a height of 15 m.,nearly one-third of which latter dimension represents the elevationof the slightly diminished substructure. The summit of this tumu-lus was accessible by an inclined plane or a flight of steps, and wasoriginally provided with a balustrade. The solid dome, built ofbrick and clay, was faced with hewn stones coated with stucco,and, as is evident from representations of topes upon reliefs, eitherpainted or ornamented by sculptures. The before-mentioned rep- ARCHITECTURE. 131 resentations and the rock-cut dhagobas in the interior of the ChaityaCaves, which will be described below, show the summit to havebeen crowned by a shrine with stepped and projecting roof, doubt-less the imitation of a reliquary, and to have been shaded by abroad canopy shaped like an umbrella. The group of topes of Gandhara, on either side of the upperIndus, between Cabul in Afghanistan and Manikyala in the Punjab,. Fig. 72. —View and Section of the great Tope of Sanchi. is more recent, having been built during the first seven centuries ofthe Christian era. The most important of these monuments arethose in the vicinity of Manikyala itself, many of which appear tohave been erected in the first century. One of them {Fig. 73) is ofhemispherical form, elevated upon two distinct cylinders decoratedwith pilasters and measuring 38 m. and 47 m. in diameter, exclusiveof the staircases. Several chambers for relics indicate enlargementsof the structure at various times, the last of which alterations ap- 132 INDIA. pears, from coins found in connection with it, to have been as lateas A. D. 720. The form of these topes is by no means always the same. Asthe cones of the Etruscan tumuli are of various angles of elevation,so also do the topes at times rise in parabolic outline to the altitudeof towers. This is the case with the tope of Sarnath, near Benares,on the Ganges, probably bu
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