Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c16.48

c16.48

It was however in the entrance to the shrine at Budh Gaya that a form of brick arching was most boldly employed, two slightly different methods being noticeable. In one of these the bricks of the arch were placed edge to edge, as in the previous instance (Plate XL, Fig. 3) but in another, horizontal courses of brick alternated with others placed upright, as in Plate XL, Fig. 5 This portion of the building has now been completely covered up by subsequent restorations, and moreover it is just possible these particular arches were not in the original structure, but introduced by the Burmese masons during the process of reconstruction by them in the fourteenth century. In support of the Burmese attribution it may be mentioned that there are brick arches of exactly the same type in several early mediaeval buildings in Burma, as may be seen in the Pettuk pagoda at Pagan, dating from the eleventh century. All the instances in India of the use of the arch occur in brick buildings presumed to have been erected about the fifth century A D., and the arrangement of the bricks in each building is practically the same, that is those constituting the voussoirs were laid flatwise and made to adhere sufficiently to those behind to enable the ring to be completed without support. This method is precisely similar to that used in the Palace of Chrosroes at Ctesiphon, on the Tigris, built about A D., 250, and in view of the intercourse known to have been maintained between the Sasanian court and India at that time, it may have been then that it was introduced