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.s10.7

v6.c41.s10.7

The Loha-Mahāpāya, or Great Brazen Monastery, has been fully described in the *Mahāvaṁśa*. ‘It was erected by king Datta-gāmini in or about 100 B.C. Its plan is stated to have been received from heaven. It was 100 cubits or 250 feet square, and as high as it was broad. The height was divided into nine storeys, each containing 100 cells for priests, besides halls and other apartments. There were 1,600 pillars supporting the structure. They stand about 6 feet apart from centre to centre in a compact phalanx, 40 on each face, and covering a space of 250 to 260 feet each way. This monastery was originally of nine, and subsequently of five, storeys, each less in dimension than the one below it. The top one was surmounted, as at Māmallapuram, by a dome, but in this instance composed of bronze—whence its name, and, ‘gilt and ornamented as it no doubt was,’ declares Fergusson, ‘it must have been one of the most splendid buildings of the East.’