History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c19.s3: Plans.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c19.s3
- Language
- English
Plans.
v1.c19.s3.1
Till the discovery of the small Buddhist chaitya halls at Têr and Chezarla and elsewhere, already described (p. 126), there was only one temple in India which gave us any hint of how the plans of such halls were related to those of Hindû and Jaina temples. Fortunately, however, its evidence is so distinct that there could be very little doubt about the matter. The temple in question is situated in the village of Aihole, in Bijâpûr district, in western India, not far from the place where the original capital of the Chalukyan sovereigns was situated, and near the caves of Bâdâmi on the one hand and the temples of Pattadakal on the other. Its date is uncertain to some extent, since an inscription on its outer gateway recording a grant to the temple, during the reign of Vikramâditya-Satyâsraya, is undated;¹ and there were two Chalukya kings of this name—one ruling between A.D. 655 and 680, and the other between 733 and 746. But the grant was to a temple already established, and even if made in the 8th century the fane might well be of fifty or eighty years earlier date, as its architecture would indicate. It is thus not only one of the oldest structural temples known to exist in western India, but in fact one of the only three yet discovered that can with any certainty be said to have been erected before the beginning of the 8th century.
v1.c19.s3.2
¹ 'Indian Antiquary,' vol. viii. pp. 285-286; and 'Archæological Survey of Western India,' vol. i. pp. 40 *et seqq.*
v1.c19.s3.3
This temple, as the sculptures testify, was dedicated to Vishnu—the special divinity of the Chalukyas; but the words carved in Kanarese on the basement—“the holy Jaina temple”—seems to indicate that at one time it had been claimed or appropriated by the Jains, and this, with some misconception as to the character of the sculptures, has led to the mistake of its being supposed that it was originally Jaina. Its original dedication is fortunately, however, of very little importance for our present purposes. The age when this temple was erected was the age of toleration in India. The Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsiang has left us a most vivid description of a great quinquennial festival, at which he was present at Allahâbâd in A.D. 643, at which the great King Silâditya presided, and distributed alms and honours, on alternate days, to Buddhists, Brahmans, and heretics of all classes, who were assembled there in tens of thousands, and seem to have felt no jealousy of each other, or rivalry that led, at least, to any disturbance.¹ It was on the eve of a disruption that led to the most violent contests, but up to that time we have no reason to believe that they did not all use similar edifices for their religious purposes, with only such slight modifications as their different formulæ may have required (Woodcut No. 180).
v1.c19.s3.4
¹ Hiouen Thsang, 'Mémoires sur les Contrées Orientales,' tome i. pp. 253 *et seqq.*; or Beal, 'Buddhist Records,' vol. i. pp. 214 *et seqq.*
v1.c19.s3.5
[Figure: 180. Old Temple at Aihole. (From a Plan by J. Burgess.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.]
v1.c19.s3.6
Be this as it may, any one who will compare the plan of the chaitya at Sânchî (Woodcut No. 47), which is certainly Buddhist, with that of this temple at Aihole, which is Vaishnava, can hardly fail to perceive how nearly identical they must have been when complete. In both instances, it will be observed, the apse is solid, and it appears that this always was the case in structural free-standing chaityas. At least, in all the rock-cut examples, so far as is known, the pillars round the apse are different from those that separate the nave from the aisles; they never have capitals or bases, and are mere plain makeshifts. From the nature of their situation in the rock, light could not be admitted to the aisle behind the apse from the outside, but must be borrowed from the front, and a solid apse was consequently inadmissible; but in free-standing examples, as at Aihole, it was easy to introduce windows there or anywhere. Another change was necessary when, from an apse sheltering a relic-shrine, it became a cell containing an image of a god; a door was then indispensable, and also a thickening of the wall when it was necessary it should bear a tower or sikhara to mark the position of the cella on the outside. Omitting the verandah, the other changes introduced between the erection of these two examples are only such as were required to adapt the points of support in the temple to carry a heavy stone roof, instead of the light wooden superstructure of the primitive Buddhist chaitya (Woodcut No. 181).
v1.c19.s3.7
It may be a question, and one not easy to settle in the present state of our knowledge, whether the Buddhist chaityas had or had not verandahs, like the Aihole example. The rockcut examples naturally give us no information on this subject, but the presumption certainly is, looking at their extreme appropriateness in that climate, that they had this appendage, sometimes at least, though not perhaps usually.
v1.c19.s3.8
If from this temple at Aihole we pass to the neighbouring
v1.c19.s3.9
181. Temple at Aihole. (From a Photograph.)
v1.c19.s3.10
Saiva one of Pâpanâtha at Pattadakal, built probably not very much later, we find that we have passed the boundary line that separates the ancient from the mediæval architecture of India, in so far at least as plans are concerned (Woodcut No. 182). The circular forms of the Buddhists have entirely disappeared, and the cell has become the base of a square tower, as it remained ever afterwards. The nave of the chaitya has become a well defined mandapa or porch in front of, but distinct from, the cell, and these two features in an infinite variety of forms, and with various subordinate adjuncts, are the essential elements of the plans of the Jaina and Hindû temples of all the subsequent ages.
v1.c19.s3.11
182. Plan of Pâpanâtha Temple at Pattadakal. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.
v1.c19.s3.12
The procession-path round the cell—called pradakshina—as that round the apse, remained for some centuries as a common but not a universal feature. The verandah disappeared. Round a windowless cell it was useless, and the pillared porches contained in themselves all the elements of shelter or of shadow that were required.