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.s15.34

v6.c41.s15.34

‘The principal *phra* differs slightly in design (from those already described), the upper part being partly *chedi* and partly *prang*. It is raised on a platform and surrounded by eight smaller towers, consisting of a lower storey, with niche on each side containing a statue of Buddha, with a superstructure recalling the entrance doorways of Cambodia and Java, though the sculpture is very inferior. Above the architrave, carried by rectangular piers with moulded capitals, is a pediment enclosed with richly carved moulding, with dragons’ heads on each side, and in the tympanum, which forms a niche, is a figure of Buddha in the *nirvāṇa* posture, with other figures. Above, there is a second storey with a repetition of the pediment and niche to a smaller scale, and there may have been a third storey, rising about 25 feet in height, the great *phra* in the centre being 80 to 90 feet high. Three towers of a similar kind, placed side by side, exist in the Vāt Sisavai, also at Sukhodaya where they take the place of the *phra*. Above a plain ground storey, with three angle projections, are other storeys, of which six still exist in the western tower on the right, and on each face is a niche with trefoil head and *nāga* terminations enclosing a statue, and, on the angle projections, antefixae carved with heads of *garuḍas* and other deities. The upper storeys are only slightly set back, one behind the other, so that they may be the prototypes of the *phra prang*.’¹