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NOVEMBER, 1906.] ANTIQUARIAN NOTES IN BURMA AND CEYLON.
ANTIQUARIAN NOTES IN BURMA AND CEYLON.
BY ROBERT SEWELL, M.B.A.S.
293
A. -Burma.
I. Inscriptions at the Yat-sauk Temple, Pagán.
N
ORTH of Pagân, on the Irrawady River, in the side of a deep ravine, is the well-known Buddhist cave-temple called the Kyaukka Onmin, which was a vihara, reserved for the use of the Mahâyâna monks after the great Hinayâna reform about the year 1182 A.D. On the high ground immediately above this temple stands a small shrine, outwardly in good preservation, called the Yat-sauk Temple, in the antarala of which, on the left wall, is an elaborate fresco in black and white. It consists of a large number of small squares, each of which represents so far as can be judged a Játaka story, with a line of descriptive writing underneath. The characters of these inscriptions look older than those of an inscription on another wall which bears a date corresponding to A. D. 1220; and, considering the bad condition of the plaster on which the designs and legends were painted, it is much to be hoped that they may soon be photographed and published. The illustration (fig. 1 of the Plate attached) is from a photograph taken under circumstances of great difficulty by Mr. Wallace, Deputy Commissioner of Myingyân.
II. Glazed tiles at the Ananda Temple at Pagán.
The outer wall of the basement of the great Ananda Temple at Pagan is ornamented with a series of green glazed terra-cotta tiles which the archæological authorities officially describe as representing the Jataka tales. This, I think, is a mistake. I examined the whole series and find that in each tile there is but a pair of figures, the two in each being similar to one another (fig. 2 of the Plate). They are probably intended to represent goblins or demons, either with a view of terrifying the worshipper into good behaviour and reverent gratitude towards the saviour, Buddha, or merely in the spirit of medieval European cathedral-builders, who depicted the devils as left outside the holy place and suffering from the extremes of heat and cold. Under each pair is a line of inscription, which should be deciphered.
In Plates IX. to XIII. of his article on the Antiquities of Ramaññadésa, unte, Vol. XXII., Sir Richard Temple has depicted several similar terra-cottas from the remains in Râmañña-dêśa. Those on Plates X. and XI. are clearly nothing but ogres or bogies. But the author has placed several of these together in his Plate VIII., fig. 1, and, in that position, inclines to think that they represent a battle. It appears, however, more probable that his examples were intended to be placed in positions similar to those occupied by the Ananda Temple terra-cottas, i. e., separately fixed as medallions decorating the outside of the basement member of a temple.
III. List of the Principal Pagodas at Pagán.
A chronological list of the principal temples at Pagân with the dates assigned to each and the names of the builders, extracted from the official records, may be found useful to students as shewing the period of the great building age at Pagân. There are only one or two structures, here and there amongst the innumerable temples, which seem to approach the original Indian model. These are possibly older than the large ones here catalogued; but all have an elevated basement under the stúpa-formed dome, and must be placed some centuries later than the last of the true Indian originals.
The traditional date of the Bû-p'aya or Pumpkin Pagoda, on the river bank, is A. D. 168-248, and it is said to have been begun by King Pyâsawdi, but I understand that there is nothing
