1845.] On the Buddhist Emblem of Architecture. 629 



I have proposed to myself in this paper to confine myself to a Boo- 

 dhistical view of these emblems ; and such view enables us happily to 

 explain the reason why, whilst two of the glyphs are entire, the third 

 should be complete, and yet not whole. According to Boodhism, there 

 first existed Boodha, " Supreme Wisdom." From this emanated Dham- 

 ma, " the Law." And from Dhamma, come those who fulfil it, Theng- 

 gha, " the Congregation of the Saints." These are necessary sequences 

 the one of the other ; no second among them being able to be, without 

 that which precedes. Boodha has existed, and therefore its emblematic 

 glyph is represented entire, and complete ; Dhamma has existed, and 

 its emblematic glyph is likewise entire, and complete ; but Thenggha has 

 not yet perfected its existence, and therefore its glyph is represented 

 as existing, but not perfect and entire. 



The Dentals, (fig. 2. " &.") 



Immediately under the Triglyph, and on the face of the architrave, 

 we find a number of triangular drops, or figures called from their shape, 

 Dentals, or Dentils. In some cases they are six in number, but in others, 

 the more correct and antient, they are five. I have remarked, in the 

 case of modern Architecture where there has been a vitiated triglyph 

 composed of three whole triglyphs, (fig. 7.) that the Dentals are six 

 in number ; whereas when they occur in connection with the true 

 triglyph, they are five. The number five in the mind of a Boodhist typi- 

 fies the five commandments, in fact the law ;* but it is singular, that 

 if such a one, speaking the Pali dialect, were to draw the attention of 

 another person to these Dentals, he would employ the term pegnytseng, 

 (pronounced something like peentseng) to identify them ; and this is the 

 technical term employed to express the five commandments. f This 



* Conf. Grammar of Burmese Language, p. 90. 

 f As it bears upon the typical value of the number "five," I have inserted the 

 following portion of a note published in the work already alluded to " the name of the 

 number five" (pegnytsa,) in the Pali language is composed of pegnya, which implies 

 " wisdom, understanding;" the final tsa, is an expletive in very common use in the 

 Pali language. It has been shewn (p. 90) that, in the eye of the modern Boodhist, the 

 number 5 typifies the five commandments, in fact the law. It will be self-evident 

 to the intelligent mind, how naturally that the fulfilment of the law was identified 

 with " wisdom," and " understanding." Examples might be multiplied to show that 

 it was so in the minds of the early races of mankind : " Behold, the fear of the Lord, 

 that is wisdom; and to depart from evil, that is understanding." (Job. xxviii. 28.) 

 "Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my 



