The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c13.32

c13.32

All those which the Chinese pilgrim described, and also those which Kanishka built in the Gandhara country, are now only heaps of ruins. Their upper stories were, no doubt, often built entirely of wood; and even more substantial ones of brick were pulled down as soon as they were deserted, to provide building material for neighbouring towns and villages. Fortunately, however, there exists a very fine model of such a building, one of the so-called Raths at Mâmallapuram, near Madras, carved out of a large granite boulder (Pl. XXIII). There is every reason to believe that it closely resembles the pyramidal monasteries of ancient India in the north as well as in the south.