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.s7.11

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