Buddhistic Monuments

Under the name of topes are included the most important class of Buddhist architecture in India. They consist of detached pillars, towers, and tumuli, all of a sacred or monumental character.

The word tope is a corruption of the Sanscrit sthupa, meaning a mound, heap, or cairn. The oldest topes are in the shape of cupolas, generally spherical, resting on a cylindrical base which sometimes rises in terraces. The cupola is surmounted by a roof in the shape of a parasol, the emblem of Hindoo royalty: on some of the topes of Sanchi there are three and five parasols.

There are nine hundred of these topes in India, nearly all within the presidency of Bombay. They are generally in the vicinity of a temple or a convent.

In the interior of the tope is the cell where the box containing the remains of the departed one and the "seven precious things" are placed. This cell consists of six slabs of stone, firmly closed after the box has been placed in it, which is done when the structure has attained a certain height. The building is then completed so that the cell is enclosed on all sides by solid masonry.

The "seven precious things" referred to are gold, silver, lapis-lazuli, crystal, red-pearl, diamonds, and coral, with which the body of the deceased person is ornamented.

The cupola is intended to represent a water-bubble, the Buddhistic symbol of the perishability of the world. The parasol is the emblem of Hindoo royalty, or of the royal dignity possessed by a Buddhistic saint.