Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/437

 CHAP. I. MONASTERIES. 365 pagodas at Thaton, when properly examined, may contain the explanation we are searching for. They evidently were not alone, and many other examples may still be found when looked for. On the whole, however, I am inclined to believe, improbable as it may at first sight appear, that their real synonyms are to be found in Babylonia, not in India. The Birs Nimrud was, like them, a seven-storeyed temple, with external stairs, leading to a crowning cell or sanctuary. Of course, during the seventeen centuries which elapsed between the erection of the two buildings, considerable changes have taken place. The lowest stairs in Burma have become internal ; in Babylonia they were apparently external. At the head of the third flight at the Birs, Sir Henry Rawlinson found the remains of three recesses. At Pagan these had been pushed into the centre of the third storey. The external flights were continued on the upper three storeys at both places ; but in Babylonia they lead to what seems to have been the real sanctuary, in Burma to a simulated one only, but of a form which, in India, always contained a cell and an image of the deity to whom the temple was dedicated. It may be asked, How is it possible that a Babylonian form should reach Burma without leaving traces of its passage through India? It is hardly a sufficient answer to say it must have come via Tibet and Central Asia ; because, in the present state of our knowledge, we do not know of such a route being used. It is a more probable explanation to say that such monuments may have existed in the great Gangetic cities, but, like these Burmese examples, in brick and plaster ; and have perished, as they would be sure to do in that climate, and where hostile races succeeded the Buddhists. But, however it may be eventually accounted for, it hardly appears to me doubtful that these Burmese seven-storeyed temples are the lineal descendants of the Babylonian examples, and that we shall some day be able to supply the gaps which exist in their genealogy. Meanwhile one thing must be borne in mind. The earliest capital of the Burmese was Tagaung in the north, and their real affinities are with the north. They got their religion by the western route from Bengal, but it was engrafted on a stem of which we know very little, and all whose affinities have yet got to be traced to their source. MONASTERIES. As Burma is a country in which the monastic system of Buddhism flourishes at the present day to the fullest extent, if we had more information regarding its monasteries, or kyaungs as they are called, it might enable us to understand the