DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0140
118
EASTERN CAVES.
-47'. 8|IL
No. 28. Plan of Bhima's Ratha, from a plan by R. Chisholm. Scale 10 feet to 1 inch.1
It is, however, by no means clear that the eastern wall was in-
tended to be removed and pillars substituted for it. In the account
of the hall in which the first convocation was held, it is stated in
the MaMivamo,2 that the priest who read Bana, or the prayers,
did so from a splendid pulpit at one end of the hall, but the pre-
sident was seated in the centre of one side facing the assembly.
The same disposition is described by Spence Hardy3 and M.
Bigandet,4 and would exactly suit such a hall as this, supposing
the wall on one side to remain solid, but would be inconvenient
and unlikely, if it were removed and pillars substituted. As the
Mahawanso was probably describing (in the fifth century) some
ordinary form of Buddhist ecclesia, or hall of assembly, it seems
not unlikely that this was the type of those in use at that time,
and consequently that the wall on one side was solid and not pierced,
except, perhaps, by doors.
This central hall was surrounded by a verandah measuring 5 feet
3 inches in the clear on the sides, but only 3 feet at the ends.
1 The dotted lines on this plan represent suggested modes in which the rath mig
have been completed if finished as intended.
2 Tumour's Translation, p. 12. 3 Eastern Monachism, p. 175.
1 Life of Gatidama, p. 354.
EASTERN CAVES.
-47'. 8|IL
No. 28. Plan of Bhima's Ratha, from a plan by R. Chisholm. Scale 10 feet to 1 inch.1
It is, however, by no means clear that the eastern wall was in-
tended to be removed and pillars substituted for it. In the account
of the hall in which the first convocation was held, it is stated in
the MaMivamo,2 that the priest who read Bana, or the prayers,
did so from a splendid pulpit at one end of the hall, but the pre-
sident was seated in the centre of one side facing the assembly.
The same disposition is described by Spence Hardy3 and M.
Bigandet,4 and would exactly suit such a hall as this, supposing
the wall on one side to remain solid, but would be inconvenient
and unlikely, if it were removed and pillars substituted. As the
Mahawanso was probably describing (in the fifth century) some
ordinary form of Buddhist ecclesia, or hall of assembly, it seems
not unlikely that this was the type of those in use at that time,
and consequently that the wall on one side was solid and not pierced,
except, perhaps, by doors.
This central hall was surrounded by a verandah measuring 5 feet
3 inches in the clear on the sides, but only 3 feet at the ends.
1 The dotted lines on this plan represent suggested modes in which the rath mig
have been completed if finished as intended.
2 Tumour's Translation, p. 12. 3 Eastern Monachism, p. 175.
1 Life of Gatidama, p. 354.