The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

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362 CEYLON AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA
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The monument is roughly one and a half
times the size of the Great Stupa at Amaravati
the diameter of the dome is two hundred and
fifty-four feet, and the height of the finial more
than a hundred and eighty feet above the
ground. The dimensions of this and other
dagabas at Anuradhapura are as great as all but
the largest of the Egyptian pyramids. 7 As in
many of the Singhalese dagabas, the relics in
the Ruvanveli were contained in a chamber
built in the interior of the solid brick dome. This
chamber, according to the Mahavamsa, contained
a jewelled bodhi tree of precious metals
and was originally painted with 'rows of fourfooted
beasts and geese', 8 probably the same
directional beasts as we shall encounter in
Singhalese sculpture. This stupa is built on two
square terraced basement platforms. A typical
element of Singhalese dagaba architecture is
present in the four altar-frontispieces or
wdhalkadas situated at the cardinal points of the
monument. These sculptured platforms bear
the strongest resemblance to the similar offsets
on the Later Andhra stupas of Amaravati and
Nagarjunakonda, 9 although the five dyaka
pillars of the Indian stupas are never found in
Ceylon. 10 It is likely that these altars, together
with most of the sculpture found at Anuradhapura,
date from the second or third
centuries a.d. All the ancient dagabas were
290. Anuradhapura, vihara near Thuparama dagaba
5 METRES