I. — Indian Architecture. It is to Asia, the cradle of the human race, that we naturally turn to find the earliest germs of art, and to trace their development. But if we expect to find the most ancient remains of architectural art in India, China, or any other country of the remote East, we shall be disappointed. The history of Indian art appears to com- mence with the rise into power of Asoka [b.c. 272 — 236], who forsook the religion of his fathers and adopted Buddhism. In the very first period of its development Indian architecture attained to a distinctive style, which was employed in religious monuments. This style was subse- quently adopted by the Hindu or Brahminical sects, who completely transformed it by the use of profuse ornament- ation. The Hindu people retained their national religion and peculiar style of architecture, even in the political apathy into which they subsequently sank ; and there exist many comparatively modern buildings in which the original forms can still be recognised. The various districts of the vast territory of India are strewn with an extraordinary number of monuments of an exclusively religious character, erected by the professors of one or the other of the two great religious systems of India ; and resembling each other in general style, in spite of a vast diversity of form. The earliest works of which we have any knowledge are : — 1. Topes (from the Sanscrit stupha, a mound), simple funeral monuments for the preservation of relics of Buddha and of his chief disciples. — These erections are also called dagobas, and are often of considerable size, — the two topes
