Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/397

 CHAP. I. BURMA. 341 work required from year to year in order to preserve the existing monuments from further decay. These reports are supplemented in the India Office Library by a large number of photographs of the principal buildings with descriptive notes, giving in many cases the dates of their erection ; it is to be hoped, therefore, that the subject will be taken up by some expert, and that the measured drawings of plans and sections, lists of which appear in the reports, may be published with reproductions of a selection of the fine series of photographs, some of which have been utilised in this work. TYPES OF RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS. The term Pagoda (in Burmese, Paya) seems to be applied by Europeans in Burma indifferently to two very different kinds of structure. Firstly : a bell-shaped stupa raised on a series of terraces or platforms and crowned with a conical finial. To these the term tsedi or zedi, which corresponds with the Chaitya in Nepal and the Chedi of Siam, is sometimes given. They consist of solid masses of brickwork, with a small sealed-up chamber in the basement containing supposed relics of Buddha. Secondly : a temple which is square on plan with sometimes projecting porches or vestibules and, in the thickness of the walls, narrow corridors, the walls of which are decorated with frescoes or sculpture, with niches at intervals containing images of Buddha. Their roofs are pyramidal, consisting of a series of storeys of moderate height set back one behind the other and crowned with the curvilinear jikhara of the Indo-Aryan style. This may be considered a sufficient indication that they derived some, at least, of their architectural features, as well as their religion, from India ; but as this form was adopted by both Jains and Hindus in the north of India, from the mouths of the Indus to the Bay of Bengal in that age, it hardly enables us to point out the particular locality from which it was derived, or the time at which it was first introduced. It is, however, so far as we at present know, the only instance of its being found out of India Proper. CIRCULAR PAGODAS OR CHAITYAS. One of the earliest examples existing is that at Bu-paya, at Pagan, ascribed to the first years of the 3rd century, A.D., which although it has been repaired and renovated in later periods probably retains the original type of its design. The centre portion or bell is of bulbous form, raised on a triple base and