Manasara Series (I. A Dictionary of Hindu Architecture; II. Indian Architecture according to Manasara-Shilpashastra; III. Manasara on Architecture and Sculpture: Sanskrit Text; IV. Architecture of Manasara: Translation; V. Architecture of Manasara: Illustrations; VI. Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad; VII. An Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture) v6.c41.s7: Nepal
Mānasāra Series (I. A Dictionary of Hindu Architecture; II. Indian Architecture according to Mānasāra-Śilpaśāstra; III. Mānasāra on Architecture and Sculpture: Sanskrit Text; IV. Architecture of Mānasāra: Translation; V. Architecture of Mānasāra: Illustrations; VI. Hindu Architecture in India and Abroad; VII. An Encyclopaedia of Hindu Architecture) v6.c41.s7
- Language
- English
Nepal
v6.c41.s7.1
There is a saying that in Nepal ‘there are more temples than houses, and more idols than men.’ In fact the number of the Buddhist, Śaiva, and Vaishṇava shrines in the three old capitals of Patan, Bhatgaon, and Kathmandu, which are within a short distance of one another, is estimated at 2,000. In Nepal no succession of styles can
v6.c41.s7.4
WINDOW IN A NEPALESE TEMPLE
v6.c41.s7.5
be, however, traced; ‘no history in fact, for we hardly know when any of the three religions was introduced, but what we find is the Vaishnava, Saiva, and Buddhist religions existing side by side at the present day.’
v6.c41.s7.6
‘Like that of so many other countries of India, the mythic history of Nepal commences even before the Kaliyuga, and among its pre-historic visitors are mentioned Vipasyī and the other five Buddhas that preceded Śākyamuni, together with Mañjuśrī, Bodhisattva,’ Svayambhū, Śiva, as Paśupati, Vishṇu, and other gods of the Brahmanical pantheon. Tradition adds that king Asoka visited the valley and built five *chaityas*, one in the centre of Patan and the others at four cardinal points round it. The earliest inscriptions¹ belong to the later kings of the Lichchhavi dynasty ‘whose ancestors seem to have come from Vaiśālī and established themselves in Nepal.’ Some of them were Vaishṇavas and others Śaivas. Their inscriptions range from the fifth to the seventh century, when Aṁśuvarman founded a new dynasty.
v6.c41.s7.7
¹ Bhagwanlal Indraji, *Indian Antiquary*, IX, 411-428.
v6.c41.s7.8
‘The Newars had entered the country from the north and were undoubtedly,’ emphasizes Furgusson, ‘of Tibetan origin,’ their traditional connexion with the Nayyars of Malabar being stated to be a myth. These Newars were snake-worshippers, and ‘the Buddhist missionaries who visited them accepted their legends and made them part of their system.’ ‘Hindu emigration into the valley must have begun early, and the kings of the long dynasty that ended about A.D. 600 all bear Hindu names, while their inscriptions indicate that they worshipped the Hindu gods. The Aṁśuvarman family or Thakuri dynasty were Vaiśyas and were succeeded by other Rajput families. In 1097 Nānyadeva, from Tirhut, invaded and subjugated the country, and again in 1324 Harisiṁha, of the same race, moved up from Simraun in the Tarai, and, overcoming the petty chiefs, assumed the government. His was a weak rule, the four chief towns, Bhatgaon, Banepa, Patan, and Kathmandu, each having their own princes till 1768, when a weak sovereign having called in the assistance of a neighbouring Gurkha raja, he seized the kingdom, and his successors still rule in Nepal.’
v6.c41.s7.9
Owing to the prevalence, as in Tibet, of Tantric rites and sorcery, ‘throughout in Nepal there is an exaggeration of all the most hideous features of the religion.’ The images of Durgā or Kālī are repulsive. Gods were propitiated with human sacrifices ‘till warned in a dream to desist and substitute animals.’¹
v6.c41.s7.10
¹ *Account of the Kingdom of Nepal*, by B. Hamilton, pp. 35, 211.
v6.c41.s7.11
So far as the architecture of the Śaiva temples in Nepal is concerned, ‘it seems to indicate that worship came into the valley from the north, rather than from the plains of Bengal. The architecture of the temples of Vishṇu, on the contrary, seems evidently to be an offshoot of the art of the plains.’² The shrine of Paśupati, three miles from Kathmandu, is a seventeenth century structure and comprises many temples and chapels. The little chapels along the side of the river are commemorative of the place where notable widows were burnt as *satīs* along with the bodies of their dead husbands. The Bhavānī temple at Bhatgaon was built in 1703 by Bhupatīndra Malla to enshrine a secret Tantric goddess, which to this day is not allowed to be seen. It is five storeys in height and stands on a pyramid of five steps. The temples of Mahādeva and Kṛishṇa at Patan have the ‘same characteristic form of roof, which is nearly universal in all buildings, civil or ecclesiastical, which have any pretension to architectural design. The temple dedicated to Kṛishṇa will be easily recognized by anyone familiar with the architecture of the plains from its *śikhara* or spire, with the curvilinear outline, and its clustering pavilions, not arranged quite like the ordinary types, but still so as to be unmistakably Bengali.’³
v6.c41.s7.12
² Fergusson, *Indian and Eastern Architecture*, p. 277, compare Paśupati temples (wood-cut no. 159), temples of Mahādeva and Kṛishṇa, Patan (photo no. 158), and Devī Bhavānī temple, Bhatgaon (photo no. 157).
v6.c41.s7.13
³ Fergusson, *ibid*, p. 283.
v6.c41.s7.14
The Buddhist *chaityas* are regarded by authorities as the oldest monuments in Nepal. They are not called temples, since they contained no relics, but ‘monuments intended to call forth pious thoughts.’ In general appearance they are ‘a hemispherical mound of earth, covered by a revetment of brick, surrounded by a plinth, also of brick, which serves as circular path. Four chapels are placed round the dome at the four points of the compass and joined to it, each containing the image of one of the four cardinal Buddhas—Amitābha on the west, Amogha-siddha on the north, Akshobhya on the east, and Ratnasambhava on the south (the centre being generally reserved for Vairochana). The temples of Svayambhū-nātha, a Buddhist monument, are perhaps the most elegant of all Nepal structures. It is beautifully situated on a gentle eminence about half a mile from Kathmandu. Its history is not known. But the great Bodhnath *chaitya* is ascribed to king Mānadeva of the sixth century, as also to a Tibetan Lama, named Khasa, of later date. ‘It is raised on three successive platforms or terraces, together about 45 feet high, on which stands the great dome, 90 feet in diameter, and rising another 45 feet, and over this is the pyramidal brick spire of about the same height.’¹ Another class of Buddhist *chaityas*, known as the *Koshṭhāgāra*, rise ‘from a low, flat mound, one-tenth of its diameter in height, to a great height.’ The curious thing about them is, ‘among others there is a four-faced *Liṅga* of Śiva, with a corresponding emblem with four Buddhas, and altogether such a confusion of the two religions as is scarcely conceivable.’²
v6.c41.s7.15
¹ Fergusson, *ibid*, pp. 278, wood-cut no. 155.
v6.c41.s7.16
² *Ibid*, p. 279, wood-cut no. 156.