Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/509

 CHAP. IV. BORO-BUDUR. 427 ship is unmistakable. It is true we have no monument in that part of India to which we can point that at all resembles Boro-Budur in design, but then it must be borne in mind that there is not a single structural Buddhist building now existing within the limits of the cave region of Western India. It seems absurd, however, to suppose that so vast a community confined themselves to caves, and caves only. They must have had structural buildings of some sort in their towns and elsewhere, but scarcely a fragment of any such now exists, and we are forced to go to Gandhara, in the extreme north-west, for our nearest examples. As already pointed out, there are many points of similarity between Jamalgarhi, and more especially between Takht-i-Bahai and Boro-Budur ; and if any architect, who was accustomed to such work, would carefully draw and restore these northern monasteries, many more might become apparent. 1 We know enough even now to render this morally certain, though hardly sufficient to prove it in the face of much that may be brought forward by those who care to doubt it. Meanwhile, my impression is, that if we knew as much of these Gandhara monasteries as we know of Boro-Budur, we could tell the interval of time that separated them, probably within half a century at least. Stretching such evidence as we at present have, as far as it will bear, we can hardly bring the Takht-i-Bahai monastery within one century of Boro-Budur. It may be two and Jamalgarhi is still one or two centuries more distant in time. But, on the other hand, if we had not these Gandhara monasteries to refer to, it would be difficult to believe that the northern system of Buddhism could have been so completely developed, even in the 8th century, as we find it at Boro-Budur. It is this wonderful progress that has hitherto made the more modern date of that monument probable it looks so much in advance of anything we know of in Indian Buddhism. But all this we must now revise by the light these Javan monuments throw on the subject. Being nearly a pyramid, situated on the summit of a hill, there were no constructive difficulties encountered in the erection of Boro-Budur, and it is consequently no wonder that it now remains so entire, in spite of its being, like all Javan build- ings, erected wholly without mortar. It is curious to observe, however, how faithfully its architects adhered to the Indian superstition regarding arches. They did not even think it necessary to cut off the angles of the corbel-stones, so as to 1 General Cunningham's drawings are not enough for any one who is a stranger tVio oiiViorf to the subject.