Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c30.18

c30.18

As an example of a rock-cut temple in the Indo-Aryan style, that at Damnar is not alone, for there is one other group of excavated shrines in this mode, not however in Rajputana, but in a more remote locality. At Masrur in the Kangra district of the Punjab Himalayas, quarried out of a rectangular mass of sandstone is a complex of monoliths, in style similar to the temple at Damnar, and also of the same date, the eighth century A.D.¹ Although so far apart, these two solitary examples of the Northern mode by this method are sufficiently alike to be classed together The Masrur conception was obtained by excavating two parallel cuttings leaving an intervening mound of rock measuring 160 feet by 105 feet Out of this mass one principal temple was carved surrounded by eight smaller ones, the sikhara of the former being of the simple type as in Plate XCVIII, Fig 2, while the capitals of the pillars are of the vase and foliage order, elaborate in design and finish, fully characteristic of their period.