
13 Pyatthat
The multi-tiered pyatthat (Sans.> prasada)is the most distinctive shape in Burmese architecture – three, five or seven tapering, square, hip roofs or boums (Sans.> bhumi, earth, level, cf. Bhumija) separated by box-like, half-stories or lebaws and crowned by a stupa-like aedicule as its hti or finial These alternating layers often consist of a padma or lotus molding, comparable with a kapota eave, alternating with a vyalamala-like course of joists, similar to the gala shrine recesses of Karnata Dravida temples, together approximating the tiers of Kadamba shikhara.
A pyatthat has a similar stepped profile as the terraces of a Bagan kyu/gyi or temple, as well as the uni-aedicular talas of a Khmer prasat’s shikhara and the multi-aedicular talas of a Karnata Dravida vimana’s superstructure. It is also used to depict the serried palaces of the Buddhist, Tusita heaven on the slopes of Mt. Sumeru (Meru,) for example, on pediments, door surrounds and windows where its boums protrude from behind the garlands of a torana arch with flame-like, vertical leaves or blades. Thus the extrados of a pyatthat arch represents the slopes of Mt. Meru and resembles the talas of a vimana lined with the shrines or palaces of devas; its intrados frames an opening in this “temple mountain” analogous to a chaitya-griha cave temple or garbhagriha. Since a pyatthat is the Burmese form of a “pagoda,” this could suggest that the multi-tala Karnata Dravida vimana and Khmer prasat contributed something to the evolution of this seminal form, not just the “umbrellas of honor” rising above a zedi or stupa, usually cited as its provenance.
