30

ARCHAOLOGY.

forms the doorstep to the principal entrance. Its ornaments
consist of concentric fillets, the three innermost of which
represent the bud, leaf, and flower of the lotus, the central
one the row of the Hansa, or sacred goose, and the outer one
a procession of the horse, elephant, lion, and bull. An
illustration of one of these moonstones is given below.

JOONSTONE AND STEPS, ANURADHAPURA

Of the dagobas of Ceylon, akin to the stupas of India and
the pagodas of Burma and China, the largest and most
renowned are situated in Anuradhapura itself.
The Buddhist dagobas, descendants of the sepulchral
sumulus of the Turanian races, were erected to contain
particles of the bodily remains of Buddba or other relics.
They are of a rounded or domical, sometimes bell-shaped
form, and were built of large sun-dried bricks, coated
externally with lime plaster and surmounted by a pedestal
and spire.
One of the largest of these stupendous monuments was
the Abhayagiri Dagoba, originally 405 feet high, or 50 feet
higher than St. Panl’s Cathedral, London, and standing on a
platform eight acres in extent. In its present somewhat
ruined state it reaches an altitude of 230 feet from the ground.
This dagoba was erected in the year 87 B.C.
It has been calculated that to build one of such solid masses
of masonry as the larger dagobas of Anuradhapura would
at the present dav ocenpv 500 men for seven vears, and that the