Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c20.8

c20.8

In support of the presumed very ancient derivation of these two architectural orders it is possible to trace back the particular shrine which, for instance, gives its specific character to the Dravidian style, to the rude shelter over the *Naga* altars, or those protecting the sacred fires of the non-Buddhists, as depicted on the Sanchi bas-reliefs executed before the Christian era. Its structural features recall even a more primitive expedient for keeping off the rain and enabling the smoke to escape, consisting of a large earthen-ware bowl inverted with its rim supported on blocks (Plate LIV, Fig. 1), thus providing a crude kind of chimney, still found in domestic buildings to the present day. There seems some probability that in Vedic times the sacrificial altar of each deity was roofed over by a particular form of shelter always associated with that deity, enabling the humblest worshipper readily to recognize each by its shape. So may be explained the occasional appearance in later temples of a range of shrines, square, round, or apsidal in form, as is well illustrated in the Jain temple of Tiruparuti-kunram near Conjeeveram, while the five "raths" at Mamallapuram may be full-scale monolithic models exemplifying the same tradition. In the course of centuries two only out of these several types of primitive shrines survived and became perpetuated in the two types of temple, their initial meaning having become obscured. In some such mysterious and subtle manner derived from an almost pre-historic experience, the two styles of Indian temple architecture, the Dravidian and the Indo-Aryan, may have had their source, and therefore their geographical distribution may have been more or less fortuitous.