Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/506

 424 FURTHER INDIA. BOOK VIII. of the inscription, A.D. 656, accords so exactly with the age I would assign to it from other sources, that it may at least stand for the present. Of course, it was not completed at once, or in a few years. The whole group, with Chandi Pawon and Mendut, may probably extend over a century and a half down, say, to A.D. 800, or over the whole golden age of Buddhism in the island. It certainly is fortunate for the student of Buddhist art in India that Boro-Budur (Woodcuts Nos. 477 and 478) has attracted so much attention ; for, even now, the four folio volumes of plates recently devoted to its illustration do not contain one figure too many for the purpose of rendering its peculiarities available for scientific purposes : the fact being that this monument was erected just at the time when the 479, Section of one of the smaller 480. Elevation of principal Dome at Boro- Domes at Boro-Budur. Budur. (From Sir S. Raffles' ' History of Java.') Buddhist system attained its greatest development, and just before its fall. It thus contains within itself a complete epitome of all we learn from other sources, and a perfect illustration of all we know of Buddhist art or ritual. The thousand years were complete, and the story that opened upon us at Bharaut closes practically at Boro-Budur. The fundamental formative idea of the Boro-Budur monu- ment is that of a dagaba with five procession-paths. These, however, have become square in plan instead of circular ; and instead of one great domical building in the centre we have here seventy-two smaller ones, each containing the statue of a Buddha (Woodcut No. 479), visible through an open cage-like lattice-work ; and one larger one in the centre, which was quite solid externally (Woodcut No. 480), but had a cell in its centre, which may have contained a relic or some precious object. There is, however, no record of anything being found in it when it was broken into. All this is, of course, an immense develop- ment beyond anything we have hitherto met with, and a sort