632 On the Buddhist Emblem of Architecture. [No. 165. 



united the Tharanagoon, " the Supreme and decisive attributes." It is 

 thus that in the Burmese (a Boodhistical) language, when the term 

 thoon, " three," is applied in an attributive signification to a person, in 

 fact if it be said, " so, and so threes," it implies that he performs those 

 moral duties and obligations, that make him a member of the Theng- 

 gha, that " Congregation" who fulfil the ■* Law," thus making himself 

 one of the Three. I have also endeavoured to shew how that viewed 

 in a similar light, the Dentals would admirably represent Dhamma. 

 And now I proceed to point out how that the Ox's, or Bull's skull, and 

 the Rose, in the same way, represent the numbers of the Thenggha. 



We will recapitulate that the earliest symbols by which Boodhism 

 endeavoured to represent her ideas were numbers. This we have shewn 

 by the attributive signification of certain numbers in Boodhistical lan- 

 guages, which only can be accounted for by their allusions to certain 

 tenets of the Boodhist faith. For instance, if it was held that such 

 and such, or so many components, or qualities, existed in the various 

 individualities of the physical and metaphysical world, then the name 

 of that number necessarily conveyed the idea of, and typified them. 

 The next step was materialising into tangibility these numerical types ; 

 this was done by the corresponding number of marks or scores. This 

 class of symbols appears to have been more used for the illustration of 

 those higher objects and ideas, which did not pertain to mankind, and 

 his converse here below. Soon, however, certain objects of the animal 

 creation were chosen, on account of certain peculiarities in their temper, 

 conformation, or mode of existence, to represent cognate ideas, especi- 

 ally in connection with the correspondent qualities among mankind. 

 Thus, there are three grades in the Thenggha. 1st, the Boodhithatwa ; 

 2ndly, the Pratyeka Boodha ; 3rdly, the Thrawaka. The first was 

 typified by an Ox, the second by a Deer, and the third by a Sheep. 

 (Conf. Travels of Foue Koe Ki, by A. Remusat, p. 10.) The first then 

 is the one to which we must look for the interpretation of this Ox's 

 or Bull's skull,* which we find forming an ornament of these friezes, 

 (fig. 2. "c") I am aware, that it has been generally attempted by 

 practical masons to explain the presence of this skull, by holding it to 



♦This mode of representation by synecdoche is very abundant in hieroglyphic, and 

 emblematic sculptury ; the head being employed as an abbreviation of the whole ani- 

 mal : thus we say, so many " head of cattle." 



