Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/282

 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I. It is also interesting as affording a hint as to the appearance of the five or nine-storeyed monasteries mentioned in a previous 137. Sat Mahal Prasada and Galpota, irom the south. (From a Photograph.) page (239). This one, however, never was a residence, nor does it simulate one, like the raths at Mamallapuram or other buildings in the Dravidian style, which will be described in a subsequent chapter. Its base is 28 ft. 6 in. square, each storey diminishes in size and height the uppermost being ruined but the total height is still 53 ft. Statues of stucco, in high relief, ornamented each storey ; and there is a flight of steps, but it reaches only to the top of the first storey. 1 The style of this peculiar tower suggests a comparison with those structures known in Cambodia as " Prasats," from which it seems to be copied ; and about the time when this one was erected by . Nissanka Malla at the end of the I2th century, Ceylon was in pretty close intercourse with Cambodia. 2 In front of it lies a splendid stone table 26 ft. 10 in. long, 4 ft. 7 in. broad, and from 16 to 26 in. thick. It is known as the Galpota or stone book, and bears a long inscription 1 Cave's ' Ruined Cities of Ceylon,' p. 154; Mr. Bell's 'Report for 1903.' 2 Compare illustrations of Prasats in Lajonqui&re, ' Inventaire Descriptif des Monuments du Cambodge,' tome i. pp. xx., xxii., 199, 2OI, 218; Aymonier, 1 Le Cambodge,' tome ii. p. 427, etc. ; ' Mahawansa,' ch. 76, vv. 21, 22.