Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c39.32

c39.32

This mediaeval development of Brahmanical architecture in Kashmir is represented by two golden periods, or, to be more precise, rose to its greatest heights under two prominent building rulers, Lalitaditya, who as already shown, brought the style into being in the middle of the eighth century, and Avantivarman, under whom it attained its most refined form in the latter half of the ninth century. From certain buildings presumed to belong to the earlier stages of the movement, the growth of the style may be outlined. What is probably one of the oldest examples is the Rudresa temple at Ludov, situated sixteen miles south-east of Srinagar, a plain and simple square walled structure having every appearance of a primitive type. Its early character receives confirmation from the fact that it resembles in several respects one of the buildings of Gandhara, the vihara of Guniyar in the Swat Valley of the Frontier Province, which is hardly likely to be later than the fifth century A D., although the Ludov temple may have been built at least two centuries after that date. The next stage may be studied in the Sankaracharya temple on the Takht-i-Sulaiman, a building occupying a unique position on a hill overlooking the city of Srinagar and with the great loop of the Jhelum river at its foot. Although of unusual shape, as its plan is square with recessed chases and its interior is circular, the triangular headed offsets which project from each side of this structure suggest an embryo form of the high-pitched pediment and trefoil arch which characterize the following stage. This pediment and arch motif, in a further process of development, appears next in the temple at Narastan, situated some thirty miles south-west of Srinagar, where the flat offsets have been elaborated into moulded niches with triangular canopies and the sunk trefoil arch introduced. Around the shrine is also thrown an enclosure wall forming a courtyard entered by a prominent gateway. Here the style is seen to be approaching its final form.