Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c46.16

c46.16

It is however a strange irony that from the harvest, so to speak, of these volcanic ranges the materials for the construction of this stupa were obtained, as the blocks of which it is built are what is known as trachyte or volcanic rock, in a word solidified lava. This is a roughly textured substance (hence its name), and the surfaces of the blocks, sometimes even worked from the boulders erupted from the craters, were ground down by hand to level beds and joined together without any cement, following the dry masonry technique of the builders of India. Afterwards the sponge-grained surfaces were made smooth by the application of thick lime-wash, or a form of plaster, remains of which treatment are still discernible on the sculptures, where it was specially necessary to produce a finished appearance to the carved figures or ornaments. It is also understood that a considerable amount of colour was applied to the sculptured forms, in which case a general view of the entire monument may have been very different from the monotone appearance it now presents. The above system of construction applies not only to this stupa, but it was also the method by which most of the buildings in Mid-Java were produced.