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square column-like pile in the centre with projected chambers, one on each of its four sides, the whole surrounded by a circumambulatory (fig XXI). There is a good deal of probability that on each of the four sides of the pile image was installed in the projecting chamber against the pile behind, thus repeating the
EAST INDIA
FIG. XXI. Paharpur (Bangladesh): plan of temple
sarvatobhadrikā motif of the Jainas. In this instance the idea might have been derived from a similar Jaina votive object in the earlier Jaina monastery. This suggestion gains further support from the extant remains of image pedestals, abutting on the walls of the pile, in a few of the projected chambers. The Burmese temples, noted above, settle, beyond possible doubt, the question of the disposition of the shrine in the Paharpur temple. On the analogy of the Pagan temples, again, a suggestion is possible that in elevation this stupendous structure consisted of a roof of tiered stages surmounted by a curvilinear Sikhara supported on the square pile shooting high up above the terraces. A similar complex, again in fragments, has been laid bare on the site known as Salban Vihāra, on the Mainamati hills (Comilla District, Bangladesh), the complex that can be identified as the vihara of Bhavadeva, the fourth ruler of the Buddhist Deva Dynasty of East Bengal. The remains of the temple in the centre of the monastic quadrangle may be seen to repeat the plan of the second terrace of the Paharpur temple. In the Mainamati temple also one finds a
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