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DECEMBER, 1893.]
NOTES ON ANTIQUITIES IN RAMANNADESA.
837
The general plan of the cave proper is evidently that of the D'ammabê Cave, but advantage has been taken of the over-hanging ledge and the rising ground in front of it to create & profasoly ornamented Entrance Hall. In front of this is a large artificial square brick tank kept in good repair, as the Cave is still a place for an annual festival at the Burmese New Year (about 15th April). In front of the tank is the pice.ground, where Zit Pweg are performed on the occasions when people congregate here.
There are the usual image platforms about the sides of both the Cave and the Entrance Hall, and also several down the centre of the Cave, as at D'ammatba.
A goodly number of small brick and plaster pagodas and chairyas are scattered about both Cave and Entrance Hall, and the surroundings of the latter. The largest are noted on the sketch plan. There is also a remarkable ornamented stalagmite, see Plate VII, covered com. pletely over with small terra-cotta images, about four inches high, of Gautama Buddha entbroned in the style already explained, surmounted by & series of standing images in plaster work and much larger. On the top of all is a small pagods or chaitya of the usual modern form. The corresponding stalactite, not visible in the plate, is profusely ornamented with images of Buddha in every attitude, standing, seated and recumbent.
The peculiar position of the Entrance Hall under an over-hanging ledge of rock, sheltered from the rain brought by the prevailing south-west wind, has led no doubt to the profuse ornamentation of the surface of the rock to a considerable height, as shewn in Plates III., IV., V., VI. and VII.
'This ornamentation is the best sample of all of the type already noted as provailing at D'ammaba and P'arum, viz., covering the rock with impressed terra-cotta and plaster tablets of all sizes, from four inches to several feet in height. The impressions are chiefly of Gautama Buddha enthroned, but they are nevertheless in great variety, and the Ding á or Church is represented in several ways, as also are various scenes from the legendary life of the founder of the religion. On the many small ledges and recesses presented by the uneven surface of the rock are placed images in alabaster and brass. This is a special feature of the wall decoration of this Cave, due to natural conditions.
All about the Entrance Hall and the Cave itself, there is an astonishingly large deposit of figures of Gautama Buddha and yahàns in every material and in every condition, besides a mass of remains of Buddhistic objects generally. Many are quite modern, but some are of a type not now met with in nodern Burmese religious art, and are exceedingly interesting from an historical and antiquarian point of view, as connecting Burmese with Indian Buddhism. They are well worth study, and probably from this Cave alone could be procured, with judicious selection, a set of objects which would illustrate the entire history of Bad. dhism in Lower Burma, if not in Burma generally and the surrounding countries, especially Siam.27
The great mass of the images and remains are in a state of complete neglect, but, as the Cave is still in use for purposes of occasional worship, many of the figures are well looked after, and some of the larger exposed ones are protected from the weather by rough boarding. The Cave itself appears to wander indefinitely into the rock at the two deep holes marked in the plant, and that near the ruined pagoda is partly filled up with a great mass of mutilated images and broken objects, thrown together in an indescribable confusion. Every pagoda has been broken into for treasure in the manner shewn in Plates IV. and V.
The word pwd (Anglo-Indian pooay or poay) is Burmese, exactly corresponding to the English word 'play' in its various senses. 24t=PAļi jafi, wed for játaka, Buddhist birth-story. The Zat Pwe is consequently modified Passion Play.
1 A move in this direction is being made by the Local Government in Burma.
