The Mahavamsa describes the foundation laying, where fissures were filled with stones and stamped down by elephants whose feet were protected with leather bindings. The bricks used for the construction were a significant development of ancient Sri Lankan engineering, the bricks used for Jetavanaramaya had a composition of 60 percent fine sand and 35 percent clay, the bricks could withstand . Linear elastic finite element analysis under self weight produced a maximum compressive stress of at the bottom centre, thus the maximum stress in the dome is ten times less than what the bricks could withstand.