Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c34.13

c34.13

In the neighbourhood of Mudabidri is a series of monuments which in style, character, and intention are even more unusual than the temples. They are tombs of the priests, and are a form of sepulchre practically unique in India, for Buddhist, Jain or Hindu rarely included any kind of mausoleum in their usage. In this instance however it appears to have been a local custom to erect a cenotaph in memory of the temple incumbent, although they bear no inscriptions or other means of identification. The style of these monuments is that of a pagoda-like pyramid rising up into several diminishing stories, each story defined by a projecting cornice, the whole being crowned by a finial. (Plate CXVIII, Fig. 4). There are several of these cenotaphs all grouped together, some of the larger are in as many as eight stories and mounting up to nearly thirty feet in height, but although of original design they possess little that is artistically distinctive.