Art. XXI*.—The Identification of the Sculptured Tope at Sanchi

Extract

The Sculptured Tope in plate xxviii. fig. i. of Tree and Serpent Worship suggested, from its height, to Mr. Fergusson, that it was formed after the Afghanistan models. He also hinted the possibility of the figures, who are performing pujah round it, being a race from the North, and perhaps from the Kábul Valley. The Rev. Mr. Beai has just added some most interesting evidences which tend to confirm the original suggestion. As the point is of great importance in many ways, the following additional evidence may be worth giving:— In the early part of 1879, when General Sir Samuel Browne's column was at Jelalabad, Mr. Jenkyns, who afterwards lost his life in the massacre at Kábul, somehow picked up a man from Kaffiristan. He had been born a Kaffir, but had been caught by the Mahomedans, and converted, — such persons are called “Nimchas.” He lived somewhere close to the borders of Kaffiristan, and Mr. Jenkyns commissioned him to return to his own district and bring back a couple of pure unconverted Kaffirs. Mr. Jenkyns' object in this was to study their language, and learn as much as he could as to their customs and other matters. The man promised to do this, and he was to bring them to Peshawer, or wherever Mr. Jenkyns was quartered. I went by appointment to make a sketch of this man, and I noticed that he did not leave his shoes on the outside of the tent-door; he doubled his legs under him, but after a little I noticed that his shoes were pieces of leather tied about his feet, and bound by thongs round the ankles. This explains why the “jooti dustoor” does not exist in Kaffiristan. Colonel Tanner, who was then on the Survey Department, caught some Chugunis, who belonged to the Northern slopes of the Ram Koond; this tribe is Mahomedan, but their district is not far from Kaffiristan.