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.s25.36

v6.c41.s25.36

‘To the general question, then, concerning the direct influence of Babylon on Indian art, we must answer no.’ But Kennedy thinks that ‘a direct influence may be traced in one particular class of buildings and one particular locality—the Buddhist *vihāra* caves of Western India. . . . The four or five-storeyed *vihāras* . . . undoubtedly recall the impression of a Babylonian *zigurat* or temple, but are hollow throughout and built of wood.’ In a note Kennedy adds, ‘Fergusson has attempted³ to connect certain Burmese and Sinhalese *dagobas* with the Babylonian type, and has suggested that connecting links once existed in brick and plaster in the valley of the Ganges. But there are two objections : (1) Had massive buildings of solid brick, either temples or *vihāras*, ever existed in the valley of the Ganges, they could not fail to have left their traces, as the *stūpas* have done. (2) The Indian buildings, so far as we know (apart from the *stūpas*, which are not buildings at all) were not solid, but hollow.’⁴