Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c6.8

c6.8

A great deal of mischief has been done by people pilfering the material after the buildings had fallen into disuse, but not so much in these stone temples as in the older brick ones in other parts of the country. Brick was more easily handled than stone by the unskilled villager in the building of his hut. “Buildings are always best preserved in places little frequented, and difficult of access: for, when once a country declines from its primitive splendour, the more inhabitants are left, the quicker ruin will be made. Walls supply stones more easily than quarries, and palaces and temples will be demolished to make stables of granite and cottages of porphyry.”¹ This is true all over India.