Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/420

 356 FURTHER INDIA. BOOK VIII. sidered to have been the prototypes of the Ananda, but, as has already been pointed out, the temples of Lemyet-hn a, Bebe-pay& and Patothamya, of still earlier date, have all the same plan, with internal corridors, from which it follows that there already existed, long before the conquest of Thaton in 1057, a type of temple^ which was adopted by King Anaurahta as his model for the Ananda. It is, however, from this period that the great development took place in Burmese architecture result- ing in the magnificent series of examples not only of the square temples but of the pagodas, a development which lasted till the invasion of Pagan by Kublai Khan in 1284, the last building of importance erected during this period being the pagoda of Mangalacheti, built by Taruk-pyemin about 1274 A.D. 1 Before passing on to a description of the principal temples at Pagan and the Burmese monasteries, there are two other classes of religious structures, the Thein and the Pitakat-Taik, which might here be included. The Thein or ordination hall for priests would seem to correspond with the B6t of Siam, except that they are not as a rule found in the temple enclosure, as in the latter country, and there are very few examples. The Upali-Thein in Pagan, dating from the I3th century, is rectangular on plan and is divided into nave and side aisles by arcades the arches of which are said to be well built. The centre aisle or nave is loftier than the side aisles, and in section the structure is similar to that of a Chaitya temple or of a Christian church, except that there are no clerestory windows. The summit of the roof is decorated with terra-cotta ridge tiles, and in the centre is an attenuated dagaba. On the top of the nave and aisle walls is a cresting or pierced parapet similar to that which crowns the terrace walls of the pagodas. The interior is said to be decorated with fine and brilliant frescoes. There is a second Thein at Pegu dating from 1476. The Pitakat-Taik or sacred library at Pagan was built by Anaurahta in 1057 to house the Buddhist scriptures which he brought away from Thatdn. It was probably built by the masons whom he brought over from Thaton, and was pre- sumably a copy of the original library there. The plan of the structure is square with apparently, judging from the roof, four parallel corridors round the central chamber or cell. The illustration (Plate XL.) shows that externally the ground 1 For an account of this temple and its interesting enamelled tiles, see * Ver- offentlichungen aus dem Konigl. Museum fur Volkerkunde,' Bd. V. (Berlin 1897) ; de Beylie calls it Sun Min Dgy, and remarks, "il a eveille les convoitises d'archeologues peu scrupuleux qui en ont arrache de nombreux has reliefs en faience." ' L' Architecture Hindoue en Extreme Orient,' pp. 259-261.