History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c33.s17.12

v2.c33.s17.12

The fundamental formative idea of the Boro-Budur monument is that of a dâgaba with five procession-paths. These, however, have become square in plan instead of circular; and instead of one great domical building in the centre we have here seventy-two smaller ones, each containing the statue of a Buddha (Woodcut No. 479), visible through an open cage-like lattice-work; and one larger one in the centre, which was quite solid externally (Woodcut No. 480), but had a cell in its centre, which may have contained a relic or some precious object. There is, however, no record of anything being found in it when it was broken into. All this is, of course, an immense development beyond anything we have hitherto met with, and a sort of half-way house between the majestic simplicity of the Abhayagiri at Anurâdhapura, and the somewhat tawdry complexity of the pagoda at Mingûn (Woodcut No. 448).