History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c33.s17.13

v2.c33.s17.13

With the idea of a dâgaba, however, Boro-Budur also combines that of a vihâra, such as that illustrated by Woodcuts Nos. 89, 90. There the cells, though only copied solid in the rock, still simulated the residences of the monks, and had not yet advanced to the stage we find in the Gandhâra monasteries, where the cells of monks had become niches for statues. Here this is carried further than in any example found in India. The cells of the Mâmallapuram example are here repeated on every face, but essentially as niches, and are occupied by 436 statues of Buddha, seated in the usual cross-legged attitude. In this respect Boro-Budur is in advance of the Takht-î-Bahai, which is the monument in India that most nearly approaches to it in mythological significance. So great, indeed, is the similarity between the two, that whatever date we assign to the one drags with it that of the other. It would, indeed, be impossible to understand how, in the 7th century, Buddhism had been so far developed towards the modern Nepalese and Tibetan systems if we had not these Gandhâra monasteries to fall back upon. On the other hand, having so similar a Buddhist development in Jâva in the 7th century, it seems difficult to separate the monuments of the north-west of India from it by any very long interval of time.