Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c28.51

c28.51

Possibly on account of the mistrust of the arch, or lack of expedients for spanning a wide space, the road-bridge does not appear to have figured in the structural activities of the Indian builder prior to the Muhammadan period. Rivers were usually crossed by ferries, and in the dry season were traversed by temporary causeways There are however a few bridges of an ancient type, notably two of Hindu workmanship in Orissa, one known as the Tentulemul bridge at Jajpur in the Cuttack district, and another, the Atharanala bridge two miles north-east of Puri. The latter spanning the Madhopur stream is reputed to date from the eleventh century, and although not in its present condition of such early construction, it is almost certainly of pre-Muhammadan origin. Although built entirely on the corbel system of oversailing courses of masonry, this elevated causeway maintains the character of a bridge as it is not entirely horizontal in its elevation. For towards the centre of its 280 ft. length it is raised up on two larger piers where the spans also are wider. These spans are nineteen in number, eight feet wide and corbelled out of piers seven feet in width, the whole supporting a roadway thirty-eight feet across. That when first built the bridge was treated as a work of art is proved by the remains of sculptured lions and elephants in its composition, that well-known motif of the Orissan style, which figures repeatedly in all the architecture of this region. The other example at Jajpur is of much the same character, but smaller in its proportions, and probably dating from the same period.