Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c39.37

c39.37

The temple at Martand was the supreme effort of Lalitaditya's builders, but there are other temples, not so large although in the same grand style, which belong to this period. Among them is a collection of buildings at Wangath, some thirty miles north-west of Srinagar, their size and position indicating that here was an important halting place on the pilgrims' way to the sacred waters of Gangabal, a solitary tarn cradled among the mountain peaks. (Plate CXXXVII, Fig. 1). The remains at Wangath are magnificently situated in the midst of a steep pine-clad gorge, with the white foaming river as its base. Three groups of buildings are discernible within a short distance of one another, the production of the whole probably extending over a considerable period and to have been begun at a relatively early date, one structure having been identified as the Jyeshthesa temple of the ruler Lalitaditya (eighth century). Two of the groups consist of temples and shrines of the typical Kashmir order, while the third was a large and substantial building of which only the plinth remains, but was probably a refectory. All are now ruined and deserted, their worn and rugged shapelessness giving them the appearance of being part of their wild and rocky environment rather than the work of human hands.