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

450 CEYLON AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA
of great complexity and based entirely on values
of religious symbolism and not technical expedients.
What would seem to be the one contradiction
to this rule is at the same time its
confirmation. It has been suggested that the
basement storey was later filled in to make a
buttress for the crushing weight of the superstructure,
but there is a good iconographical
necessity for such an expedient as well : Barabudur
in its entirety is a magic replica of the
universe, with a regular and definite hierarchy
and progress symbolized in its galleries ; so the
basement, with its representations of hell scenes
and episodes from the world of desire - the first
stage which the mystic has to traverse - was
covered up - buried - to symbolize the suppres-