Manasara Series (I. A Dictionary of Hindu Architecture; II. Indian Architecture according to Manasara-Shilpashastra; III. Manasara on Architecture and Sculpture: Sanskrit Text; IV. Architecture of Manasara: Translation; V. Architecture of Manasara: Illustrations; VI. Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad; VII. An Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture) v6.c41.s10.14

v6.c41.s10.14

There is a unique circular building known as the Wata-Dā-ge.¹ ‘It is a circular enclosure open to the sky, 58 feet 2 inches in diameter, and surrounded by a wall 14 feet high. Round the outer circumference of the wall is a narrow passage enclosed by a highly ornamental screen about 3 feet high, adorned with a range of 32 slender pillar shafts, 6 feet in height, with highly carved capitals. Below this is a richly carved stylobate, about 4 feet 6 inches high, standing on a circular platform 120 feet in diameter, about 20 feet broad and 4 feet 6 inches above the ground level. The principal entrance is from the north, but at other cardinal points also are flights of steps leading up to the enclosure. They all have highly carved thresholds or moonstones to start from. Their risers are each adorned with twelve figures of dwarfs, and their side-pieces, or jambs, are of exceptional richness, and each has a pair of *nāga*-headed *dvārapalas* at the sides of its steps.’ Inside this were found the remains of a small brick-*dāgaba* and broken figures of Buddhas, and the broken shafts of pillars of two circles that had surrounded the *dāgaba*.