Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c42.12

c42.12

Such a prodigality of building production as that maintained at Pagan over so long a period during the early mediaeval era was largely the outcome of a flood of religious fervour, but not entirely so. The political circumstances were also favourable. Stimulated as the people were by the absorbing power of Buddhism, a state of being discernible in all the countries of Asia wherever the teachings of the Buddha penetrated, the religious movement in Burma was accompanied by another force. This was the realization in the country of a national consciousness, which eventually brought about a unification of the people, a consummation achieved by the administrative genius of king Anoratha (1044-1077), who succeeded in welding his subjects into a homogeneous whole To the combination of the two factors, religious and political, initiated and put into effect by this ruler in the middle of the eleventh century, these architectural records of Burma's mediaeval greatness are mainly due