12 Tlie 'Remains at Pagan. [No. 1. 



whole at a height of one hundred and sixty-eight feet above the 

 ground. 



The building internally consists of two concentric and lofty cor- 

 ridors, communicating by passages for light opposite the windows, 

 and by larger openings to the four porches. Opposite each of these 

 latter, and receding from the inner corridor towards the centre of 

 the building, is a cell or chamber for an idol. In each this idol is a 

 colossal standing figure upwards of 30 feet in height. They vary 

 slightly in size and gesture ; but all are in attitudes of prayer, 

 preaching, or benediction. Each stands, facing the porch and 

 entrance, on a great carved lotus-like pedestal, within rails like the 

 chancel-rails of an English church. There are gates to each of these 

 chambers, noble frames of timber rising to a height of four and 

 twent}'- feet. The frame bars are nearly a foot in thickness, and 

 richly carved on the surface in undercut foliage ; the pannels are 

 of lattice work, each intersection of the lattice marked with a gilt 

 rosette. 



The lighting of these image chambers is perhaps the most singu- 

 lar feature of the whole. TJie lofty vault, nearly 50 feet high, in 

 which stands the idol, canopied by a valance of gilt metal curiously 

 wrought, reaches up into the second terrace of the upper structure, 

 and a window pierced in this sends a light from far above the 

 spectator's head, and from an unseen source, upon the head and 

 shoulders of the great gilded image. This unexpected and partial 

 illumination in the dim recesses of these vaulted corridors, produces 

 a very powerful and strange effect, especially on the north side, 

 where the front light through the great doorway is entirely 

 subdued by the roofs of the covered approach from the monastic 

 establishments.* 



These four great statues represent the four Buddhas who have 

 appeared in the present "World Period. f 



* "A similar artistic introduction of the light is mentioned by Mr. Fergusson 

 as characterising ' the great rock-cut Basilicas of India.' " (HandbooJc of Arch. 1. 

 313.) May this not have been imitated in the Ananda, and may the fact not be 

 in some degree a confirmation of the legend, that caves were intended to be repre^- 

 Rented by these vaults ? 



t " They are said to be composed of different materials as follows : 



