594 



THE RUINED (CITIES. 



[Pakt X. 



be unseen by the spectator in front, and thence it is 

 poured hke a halo over the head of the glorified object 

 below. ^ 





1 





SECTION OF A BUDDHIST TEMPLE IN AVA. 



This mode of illuminating an interior is common in 

 the rock-cut Basihcas of India, in which " one undivided 

 volume of light, coming through a single opening over 

 head, falls directly on the altar or other principal object, 

 leaving the rest of the structure in comparative ob- 

 scurity."^ The similarity of position and the identity 

 of attitude between the two statues in Ava and Ceylon, 

 suggest the conjecture that the figure at Pollanarrua, 

 hke that at Pagan-myo, may have been placed in the 

 recess which it occupies, so as to admit of being lighted 

 in a similar manner from an aperture concealed in the 



^ Yule's Embassy to Am, p. 38. 



"^ Fergusson's Handbook of Architecture, vol. i. p. 27. 81.3. 



