A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c8.20

c8.20

The true explanation seems to be that the domical form of the masonry *stūpa* (probably built first in brick, not stone) is derived from the curved roof of bamboos built over a primitive circular hut-shrine constructed of perishable materials. Circular shrines with conical roofs still exist among the Todas, and such a structure, if fitted with a domical roof, would be a *stūpa*. The solid interior of the *stūpa* may or may not have been suggested by the tumulus. My argument applies only to the exterior domical form.