20 The Remains at Pagan. [No. 1. 



and Mirzapur, to say nothing of the older and finer works in other 

 parts of Iudia, of which I have scarcely any personal knowlgdge. 



Omitting further consideration of the last named building, the 

 architectural elements of which the great temples are composed, 

 and hundreds of smaller ones in the same style, are nearly the 

 same in all, though combined in considerable variety. 



The pointed arch is found in all, and is almost universally the 

 form of the doorways. It is, universally, enclosed in a framework, 

 or facade, exhibiting an arch dressing of a triangular or almost 

 parabolic shape, drooping in cusps of a characteristic form, and sur- 

 mounted by a sort of pediment of graduated flame-like spires and 

 horns of a very peculiar character. This cusped arch and these 

 flamboyant spires and horns are, in a modified form, part of the 

 style of ornament universal in the elaborate timber monasteries 

 of Burma. The style seemed to me more natural in the latter 

 material, and I felt more inclined to believe that the masonry or- 

 namentation had been, (as in so many other climates,) adapted 

 from that of timber, than the architecture of the temples modified 

 to suit the timber structures. This opinion has changed since my 

 return to Calcutta, and access to drawings has enabled me to trace 

 the prototype of this flamboyant ornament in the temples of Southern 

 India. Whether again this pattern did not originate in a preceding 

 timber model is too remote a question. Even in the cave temples 

 of Western India, Mr. Fergusson traces distinctly the limitation of. 

 timber construction. 



In the greater doorways, this cusped arch face and pediment is 

 generally supported at each side by a semi-arch and semi-pediment 

 of like charcter, at a lower level. 



All these arches and semi-arches rest on regular pilasters with base, 

 capital, and cornice, the singular resemblance of which, both in 

 general character and in many of the details of mouldings, to the 

 pilasters of lioinan architecture is startling, perplexing, and unac- 

 countable to me by any theory I have yet heard propounded, if 

 anything like the true date has been assigned to these buildings. 



The following extracts from Mr. Oldham's journal well express 

 the feeling with which several members of the mission involuntarily 

 viewed these structures with reference to their origin. 



