A Guide to Banda. By Sir John Marshall. (Calcutta :
Superin- tendent of Government Printing. Be. 9d.)—The energetio Director- General of Archaeology in India, who has done so much for her ancient monuments, describes in this scholarly little book the " stupas," temples and monasteries at Bianchi, in Bhopal, the most perfect examples of Indian Buddhist architecture, which he has excavated and repaired in recent years. A " stupe, " is a dome- shaped monument, built as a shrine or memorial ; " tope " is an Anglo-Indian corruption of the word. The early " stupas " at Sanchi, dating from before the Christian era, are memorable for the wealth of fine carving on their gateways and balustrades, and much of the book is devoted to descriptions of these remarkable reliefs, illustrating for the most part scenes in the life of the Buddha. It may be noted that the human figures, though primitive, are normal ; the many-armed and many-legged figures of later Indian art, to which the Western eye cannot reconcile itself, are thus shown to be, as we have always suspected, the prodticit of a debased school of thought. Indian art in its purest phase is finely exemplified at Bauchi.
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