Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/208

I 74 BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I. place may be gathered from the following : " In the different courts the houses of the monks were each four storeys in height. The pavilions had pillars ornamented with dragons, and had beams resplendent with all the colours of the rainbow rafters richly carved columns ornamented with jade, painted red and richly chiselled, and balustrades of carved open work. The lintels of the doors were decorated with elegance, and the roofs covered with glazed tiles of brilliant colours, which multiplied themselves by reflection, and varied the effect at every moment in a thousand manners." Or as he enthusiasti- cally sums up : " The Sangharamas of India are counted by thousands, but there are none equal to this in majesty or richness, or the height of their construction." 1 From what we know of the effects of Burmese monasteries at the present day this is probably no exaggeration ; and with its groves of Mango-trees, and its immense tanks, which still remain, it must have been, as he says, " an enchanting abode." Here there resided in his time within and without the walls 10,000 priests and neophytes, and religion and philosophy were taught from a hundred chairs, and here consequently our Pilgrim sojourned for five years, imbibing the doctrines of the Law of Buddha. What Cluny and Clairvaux were to France in the Middle Ages, Nalanda was to Central India, the depository of all true learning, and the foundation from which it spread over all the other Buddhist lands ; but still, as in all instances connected with that strange parallelism which existed between the two religions, the Buddhists kept five centuries in advance of the Roman Church in the invention and use of all the ceremonies and forms common to both religions. It would indeed be satisfactory if the architecture of this celebrated monastery could be restored and its arrangements made clear. Something has been done by Cunningham 2 towards this, and excavations were made by Mr. Broadley and Captain Marshall. The former, it is feared, destroyed more than he restored, and his drawings are so imperfect as to be utterly unintelligible. The latter did not publish his discoveries. Nothing, however, would probably better repay a systematic exploration than this celebrated spot, if under- / taken by some one experienced in such researches, and qualified v to make detailed architectural drawings of what is found. If, however, it should turn out, as hinted above, that the whole of the superstructure of these viharas was in wood, either fire or natural decay may have made such havoc among 1 ' Iliouen Thsang,' tome i. p. 151 ; or Seal's ' Life of Hiuen Tsiang,' p. in. 2 ' Archseological Reports,' vol. i. pp. 28-36, plate 16.