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This broad stretch of country before you is part of the native state of Gwalior in Central India, a region which was probably once well populated or at least much frequented by devout Buddhists. Within the range of sixty square miles about here there are thirty topes or artificial mounds more or less like this one, all built from nineteen hundred to twenty-one hundred years ago as memorials of some act or movement of the Buddha when he lived and taught here in India.
   
This is not a temple of "building" in the sense of enclosing a hollow space. Its core is a mound of earth, bricks and unhewn stones, with this facing of hewn stones to bear the weathering of the centuries. That circular platform at the base is 106 feet in diameter; the dome itself is 42 feet high and up on the top there is a level space.
   
Memorial services of some sort used to be held here. Those tall gates with their wonderfully elaborate sculpted ornament must have marked places for ceremonial approach. The level, circular pathway around the base of the dome would seem to have been a place for processions to encircle the sacred spot. The carven elephants and other figures on the gate, of course, had definite religious significance in their time - they were symbols of spiritual ideas just as the lamb, the lion, the eagle and the dove are symbolic of spiritual ideas in Christian churches.
   
Enormous numbers of such topes as these were built in different parts of India before the Christian era, but the reaction of Brahmanism and the iconoclastic zeal of Mohammedanism together led to the destruction of most of them.
   
(For the best western version of the story of the Buddha see Sir Edwin Arnold's "Light of Asia." Consult also encyclopedia articles and volumes like Clarke's "Ten Great Religions.")
   
From Notes of Travel, No. 11, copyright, 1904, by Underwood & Underwood.

The Sanchi Tope near Bhilsa, India - built by Buddhists 2100 years ago.

Le Sanchi Tope près de Bhilsa, Inde, bâti il y a 2100 ans.

Der Ganchi Tope, nahe Bhilija, Indien, vor 2100 Jahren von Buddüten gebaut.

El Sanchi Tope serca de Bhilsa - construido por Budhistas hacen 2100 años, India

Sanchi Tope, nära Bhilsa, bygdt 2100 år sedan af buddhister, Indien

Санчи Тоиъ, Бдизъ, Ъидъзы, Индiя - сооруженный буддстами 2100 дътъ назадъ