Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c16.10

c16.10

(3) the Monasteries and Sanctuaries of the Buddhist Holy Land, and (4) the Stupas of Sindh. The buildings forming the first group are two only in number, and are relatively small structures possessing no outstanding architectural merit. They are important, however, not for what they are intrinsically, but for their significance, as they are Buddhist structural temples in their original condition, and the only surviving examples of their kind. Situated widely apart, although both are in the southern portion of the peninsula, one at Ter near Sholapur, but within the old State of Hyderabad,¹ and the other at Chezarla in the Kistna district of the Andhra State, they are presumed to have been built as early as the fifth century A. D. Both owe their preservation to having been at a later date appropriated to Brahmanical uses, as a rectangular hall, or *mandapam*, was subsequently added to make them suitable for the Hindu ritual. Buildings of this type were no doubt common about the beginning of the Christian era, when Buddhism had its adherents all over the country, but on the decline of the creed, particularly in the south, they were allowed to fall into decay. Both temples, excluding their mandapas, are of approximately the same dimensions, the exterior length of each being about thirty feet, the Chezarla example in its other proportions being slightly the smaller. In style they are singularly alike, both having apsidal ends, "keel" vaulted roofs, "chaitya" gable fronts, with a wide cornice moulding of the rock-cut order all round the building at the junction of the walls and the roof. A flat ceiling about 7½ feet from the floor conceals the construction of the vault at Chezarla, but at Ter the roof is quite open, showing that the vault was obtained by corbelling out each course of brickwork and covering the whole with a coating of plaster. The bricks in each instance are the same size, being 17"×9"×3", the large dimensions serving as additional evidence of their date, as they are less in dimensions than the Mauryan and yet larger than the Gupta. Although little more than a chapel the chaitya at Ter is a well-proportioned structure, the pilasters which form its principal exterior decoration being quite suitable for their purpose, while the sunk panels above the cornice and the treatment of the gable-end have all been carefully considered. (Plate XVI, Fig. 1.) The example at Chezarla is more florid in its ornamentation especially in the upper story, the plainness of the lower portion being relieved by a series of four windows with chaitya arched pediments. These two small buildings explain to a certain extent the external appearance of the structural temple of the Buddhists, hitherto only known through the rock-cut chaitya halls, which have no exteriors except their facades. In both these brick chapels and the rock-cut halls there are constructional features, inherited from the same primitive type, either wood or thatch, so that their inter-relationship is tolerably clear.