An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v2.c29.137

v2.c29.137

The sanctuary was thought by him to be a circular temple with a door in the e., enclosing another circular wall of wedge-shaped bricks, the intervening space serving as a procession path. The latter wall is ‘made up of panels of brickwork alternating the octagonal columns of wood, which numbered 26 ..., the charred stumps of which ... have survived and double-pointed cramps found in the recesses in which the columns stood indicate that the latter were composed of two or more thin sections, joined to obtain the required thickness.’ According to Mitra, 1971, p. 42, however, the two concentric circular walls enclosed a *stūpa*, now disappeared, so that the whole structure was a *stūpa* complex with the space between the circular walls serving as *pradakṣiṇā-patha*. The complex was at a later date enclosed by an oblong brick enclosure, its n., s. and w. walls touching the outer circular wall, the open space on the e. serving as a congregation hall. The complex is thus a prototype of the later rock-cut *caitya-gṛhas* of w. India.