History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c33.s2: Types of Religious Buildings.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c33.s2
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Types of Religious Buildings.
v2.c33.s2.1
The term Pagoda (in Burmese, Payâ) seems to be applied by Europeans in Burma indifferently to two very different kinds of structure. Firstly: a bell-shaped stûpa raised on a series of terraces or platforms and crowned with a conical finial. To these the term *tsedi* or *zedi*, which corresponds with the Chaitya in Nepâl and the Chedi of Siam, is sometimes given. They consist of solid masses of brickwork, with a small sealed-up chamber in the basement containing supposed relics of Buddha. Secondly: a temple which is square on plan with sometimes projecting porches or vestibules and, in the thickness of the walls, narrow corridors, the walls of which are decorated with frescoes or sculpture, with niches at intervals containing images of Buddha. Their roofs are pyramidal, consisting of a series of storeys of moderate height set back one behind the other and crowned with the curvilinear sikhara of the Indo-Aryan style.
v2.c33.s2.2
This may be considered a sufficient indication that they derived some, at least, of their architectural features, as well as their religion, from India; but as this form was adopted by both Jains and Hindûs in the north of India, from the mouths of the Indus to the Bay of Bengal in that age, it hardly enables us to point out the particular locality from which it was derived, or the time at which it was first introduced. It is, however, so far as we at present know, the only instance of its being found out of India Proper.