Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c42.21

c42.21

In addition to the main spire which rises above the centre of the building, there are other supplementary pinnacles over the angles of the receding roofs and above the porticos, of significant design. For they represent two traditions, as some of these, imitating the central spire are derived from the Indo-Aryan sikhara, while others, particularly the lower and subsidiary turrets, and what may be termed, a pagoda variation of the stupa. The former are rectangular in section but have recessed chases and are patterned with horizontal ribbed mouldings as seen in the *deuls* or towers of the Orissan temples, India On the other hand the latter has a bell-shaped body, an attenuated development of the stupa. It is however in the exterior enrichments of the architectural scheme of the Ananda as a whole with which one is inclined to deal critically, as much of it is of an excessively flamboyant order and, although not decadent, is somewhat reminiscent of that later period of the building art in India, when the Nawabs of Oudh threw across the openings of their palaces foliated arches, and broke their skylines with florid merlons in an effort to attain a super-richness of effect But the Burmese architectural decoration was by no means debased, it was a form of genuine artistic exuberance which expressed itself plastically in cusped overdoors, wave-line pediments, and flowing, undulating shapes generally. That this method of decoration breaks up effectively the solid mass of the entire composition is conceded, but taken as a whole, it borders on the ultra-florescent, a reflection probably of the luxurious natural growth with which much of the country abounds.