History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c19.s5: Kailâs, Elûrâ.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c19.s5
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Kailâs, Elûrâ.
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From the raths at Mâmallapuram to the Kailâs at Elûrâ the transition is easy, but the step considerable. At the first-named place we have manifest copies of structures intended originally for other purposes and used at Mâmallapuram in a fragmentary and disjointed manner. At Elûrâ, on the contrary, the whole is welded together, and we have a perfect Dravidian temple, as complete in all its parts as at any future period, and so far advanced that we might have some difficulty in tracing the parts back to their originals without the fortunate possession of the examples on the Madras shore.
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Independently, however, of its historical or ethnographical value, the Kailâs is itself one of the most singular and interesting monuments of architectural art in India. Its beauty and singularity always excited the astonishment of travellers, and, in consequence, it is better known than almost any other structure in that country, from the numerous views and sketches of it that have been published. Unlike the Buddhist excavations we have hitherto been describing, it is not a mere interior chamber cut in the rock, but is a model of a complete temple, such as might have been erected on the plain. In other words, the rock has been cut away, externally as well as internally. The older caves are of a much more natural and rational design than this temple, because, in cutting away the rock around it to provide an exterior, the whole has necessarily been placed in a pit. In the cognate temples at Mâmallapuram (Woodcut No. 185) this difficulty has been escaped by the fact that the boulders of granite out of which they are hewn were found lying free on the shore; but at Elûrâ, no insulated rock being available, a pit was dug around the temple in the sloping side of the hill, about 106 ft. deep at its inmost side, and half that height at the entrance or gopuram, the floor of the pit being 160 ft. wide and 280 ft. in length. In the centre of this rectangular court stands the temple, as shown in the accompanying plan (Woodcut No. 199), consisting of a vimâna, 96 ft. in height, preceded by a large square porch, supported by sixteen columns (owing probably to the immense weight to be borne); before this stands a detached porch for the Bull Nandi, reached by a bridge; and in front of all stands the gateway, which is in like manner connected with the last porch by a bridge, the whole being cut out of the native rock. Besides these there are two pillars, or dhwajastambhas (literally banner staves) left standing on each side of the detached porch, and two elephants about the size of life. Round the court there is a peristylar cloister with cells, and above are some halls (not shown in the plan), which give to the whole a complexity, and at the same time a completeness, which never fail to strike the beholder with astonishment and awe.
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199. Kailâs at Elûrâ. (From ‘Cave Temples of India.’) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.[^1]
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As will be seen from the view (Woodcut No. 200), the outline of the vimâna or *sikhara* is at first sight very similar to that of the raths at Mâmallapuram, but on closer inspection we find everything so modified at Elûrâ as to make up a perfect and
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¹ This plan represents the temple and surrounding shrines at the level of their upper floors, but the surrounding court at the lower level of the entrance. At the upper level on the north side is the Lankeśvara temple, the hall of which is about 75 ft. long by 50 ft. wide, exclusive of the shrine.
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200. Kailâs Elûrâ. (From a Sketch by the Author.)
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well-understood design. The vimâna with its five surrounding cells and the porch in front of it, with its side balconies, make a complete Hindû temple, such as are found in hundreds in India, and instead of the simulated cells that surround the upper storey in the Madras example, they become realities, but used for widely different purposes. Instead of being simulated residences, the five cells that surround the central temple, on the same platform, are each devoted to a separate divinity, and complete the whole as a Sivâlaya or “abode of Siva,” whilst they group most pleasingly with the central vimâna.¹ Here, too, they are independent, and separated from the temple itself.
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¹ These shrines are now empty, but their purposes are thus explained: North and south of the shrine are doorways leading out upon the platform, on which they stand, and which forms a pradakshina round the Linga shrine; and passing out by the south door the first shrine on the south was appropriated to the Mâtris or seven mothers, arranged along the back wall with Kârtikaswâmin or Siva at the left end, and Ganesa with Bhringi at the right; the next—at the south-east corner—was dedicated to the disgusting Chanda, to whom the refuse of the offerings are thrown; on the east is the shrine of Pârvatî, whose place is just behind her lord's; that on the northeast belongs to Bhairava or Rudra, "the terrible"; and the fifth, on the north side, opposite to the *Somasûtra*, or outlet for the washings of the Linga—which it is unlawful to pass in performing the pradakshina ritual—is the shrine of Gaṇesa. The Mâtris are often represented in Saiva sculpture. They occur at Elûrâ again in cave temples 14, 21, and 22, as also under the bridge leading to the Nandi shrine here; and are found at Elephanta, Gulwâdâ, and elsewhere.—'Cave Temples of India,' pp. 428, 434, 453, and plate 72; 'Archæological Survey of Western India,' vol. v. pp. 39, 40, and plate 34.
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In the west corner of the north side of the court is a small chapel (Woodcut No. 201) that is probably of an early date. The guards or dwârpâls, at the door of the cella inside the
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201. Shrine of the River Goddesses. (From a Photograph.)
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principal temple, were the river goddesses Gangâ and Yamunâ; and this chapel was dedicated to the trio—Sarasvatî, Gangâ, and Yamî or Yamunâ—the first, on the left, standing on a lotus flower, with foliage and birds behind her; the central one on a *makara* or conventionalised alligator; and the third on a tortoise, with water plants represented behind them, and richly-carved torans above. All three are in almost entire relief. These figures are scarcely found in later sculptures, whilst they are frequent in cave temples of the 5th and later centuries. The apartment is about 23½ ft. long by 9 deep, and 11 ft. high, and has two free-standing pillars and two in antis, of a pattern differing entirely from those of the temple, but of a much earlier type than those in the Lankeswara. They have low bases and shafts of sixteen sides, with cushion capitals and bracket abaci. The frieze above has been divided into small compartments, with seven small groups of figures in them. The excavation above has only the front of its balcony completed.
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202. Dhwajastambha at Elûrâ. (From a Drawing by H. Cousens.) Scale 10 ft. to 1 in.
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Though much damaged by Moslim violence, the lower part of the entrance to the court shows a considerable advance on anything found at Mâmallapuram, and an approach to what the gopurams afterwards became, in so far at least, as the perpendicular parts are concerned; instead, however, of the tall pyramids which were so universal in later times, the entrance to the Kailâs exhibits only what may be called the germ of such an arrangement. It is the upper member of a gopuram placed on the flat roof of the gateway, and so small as not to be visible except from above.¹
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¹ In Daniell’s ‘Oriental Scenery’ (1816), pt. iv. plate 12, the gateway is shown, and in plate 15 the upper part of it. Being cut in the rock, no addition or alteration could afterwards have been intended.
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On each side of the Nandi Mandap stands a square pillar or dhwajastambha, bearing the *trisula* or ensign of Siva, now much defaced (Woodcut No. 202). They are 49 feet high, inclusive of the trident on the top and of very elegant proportions.¹ Their analogy to the lion pillars of the Buddhists (Woodcut No. 7) and the Chaumukh pillars of the Jains must be at once recognised, each bearing a symbol of the creed.
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¹ There must have been an inscription just above the base of this one, but it has long since disappeared. For a fuller account of Kailâs and its accessories see 'The Cave Temples of India,' pp. 448-462, and plates 80-84; and 'Archæological Survey of Western India,' vol. v. pp. 26-37, and plates 1, 4, 24-31.
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In the south of India, among the Jains, as mentioned in a later chapter, such pillars are very common, usually standing
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203. Dîpdân in Dhârwâr. (From a Photograph.)
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singly in front of the temples, and were apparently intended to carry quadruple figures of Tîrthankaras—known as Chaumukhs. They generally consist of a single block of granite, square at base, changing to an octagon, and again to a figure of sixteen sides, with a capital of very elegant shape. Some, however, are circular, and, indeed, their variety is great. They range from 30 ft. to 40 ft. and even 50 ft. in height, and, whatever their dimensions, are among the most elegant specimens of art in southern India. Typical Jaina examples of these exist at Sravana-Belgola and Venûr in Mysore and at Guruvâyankeri in South Kanara (Woodcut, vol. ii., No. 308).
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One class of the Stambhas at Hindû temples was intended to carry lamps at festivals, of which Woodcut No. 203 represents a specimen; but another class—the dhwaja-stambhas—like the above at Elûrâ, are frequently in pairs, and bear the symbol of the sect—the trisula or Garuda. Besides the well-known pillar at Eran, a fine example of a Vaishnava Stambha, consisting of a very lofty square tapering monolith, carved with a creeper pattern up each face and standing on an elaborately carved base, is found at Sompalle in South Arkat district. At Balagâmi is one 35 ft. high, erected by Somesvara I. Chalukya, about 1047, crowned by a human figure having two birds’ heads, called a Gandabherunda,—a form of Garuda. There is a well-known example also at Jâjpur (Woodcut, vol. ii., No. 321), and another, removed from the Kanârak temple, stands in front of the great Purî temple.
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Fortunately we have now the means of determining the age of the Kailâs with some precision. Kîrtivarman II. of the Western Chalukyas was overthrown by Dantidurga the Râshtrakûta king of Mâlkhed before A.D. 754, and soon after the subjugation was completed by his successor Krishna I. who ruled from about 757 till 783. One of the achievements ascribed to this latter king is the construction of a wonderful Saiva temple in “the hill Êlâpura,” which is to be identified with this Kailâs temple.¹
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¹ ‘Indian Antiquary,’ vol. xii. p. 229. Thirty years ago, on the remains of painting on the roof of the small porch, was a fragment of an inscription in which the name “Kannara,” *i.e.* Krishna, was still legible in old characters.
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After the temple itself was finished fresh additions appear to have been made from time to time in the rock walls of the surrounding court. The large cave temple, known as Lankesvara, cut in the scarp on the north side of the court, differs so markedly from the style of the central temple, that it must be ascribed to fully one if not two centuries later.² Some excavations, too, are quite unfinished, and works may have gone on till the 12th century.
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² For a view of the interior of Lankesvara, see Fergusson’s ‘Illustrations of the Rock-cut Temples of India,’ 17th plate.
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Considerable misconception exists on the subject of cutting temples in the rock. Almost every one who sees these temples is struck with the apparently prodigious amount of labour bestowed on their excavation, and there is no doubt that their monolithic character is the principal source of the awe and wonder with which they have been regarded, and that, had the Kailâs been an edifice of masonry situated on the plain, it would scarcely have attracted the attention of European travellers. In reality, however, it is considerably easier and less expensive to excavate a temple than to build one. Take, for instance, the Kailâs, the most wonderful of all this class. To excavate the area on which it stands would require the removal of about 100,000 cubic yards of rock, but, as the base of the temple is solid and the superstructure massive, it occupies in round numbers about one-half of the excavated area, so that the question is simply this—whether it is easier to chip away 50,000 yards of rock, and shoot it to spoil (to borrow a railway term) down a hillside, or to quarry 50,000 cubic yards of stone, remove it, probably a mile at least to the place where the temple is to be built, and then to raise and set it. The excavating process would probably cost about one-tenth of the other. The sculpture and ornament would be the same in both instances, more especially in India, where buildings are always set up in block, and the carving executed *in situ*. Nevertheless, the impression produced on all spectators by these monolithic masses, their unalterable character, and appearance of eternal durability, point to the process as one meriting more attention than it has hitherto received in modern times; and if any rock were found as uniform and as easily worked as the Indian amygdaloidal traps, we might hand down to posterity some more durable monument than many we are now erecting at far greater cost.
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DRAVIDIAN TEMPLES.
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Pattadakal and Dhârwâr Temples — Conjivaram — Tanjor — Tiruvâlûr — Srîrangam — Chidambaram — Râmesvaram — Madurâ — Tinnevelly — Kumbakonam—Vellor and Perûr—Vijayanagar.
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WHEN we turn from these few scattered rock-cut examples to the great structural temples of the style, we find their number is so great, their extent so vast, and their variety so perplexing, that it is extremely difficult to formulate any distinct ideas regarding them, and still more so, as a matter of course, to convey to others any clear idea on the subject. To any one at all familiar with the present status of the population of the province, the greatest wonder is how such a people could ever have conceived, much less carried out, such vast undertakings as these, and that so recently that some of the greatest and boldest were only interrupted by our wars with the French scarcely a hundred and fifty years ago. The cause of this, however, is not far to seek. Ever since we took possession of the country, our countrymen have been actuated by the most beneficent intentions of protecting the poor against the oppression of the rich. By every means we have sought to secure the ryot in his holding, and that he should not be called on to pay more than his fair share of the produce of his land; while to the landowner we have offered a secure title to what belonged to him, and a fixed income in money in lieu of his portion of the produce. To a people, however, in the state of civilisation to which India has reached, a secure title and a fixed income only means the power of borrowing on the occasion of a marriage, a funeral, or some great family festival, ten times more than the borrower can ever pay, and our courts as inevitably give the lender the power of foreclosing his mortgage and selling the property. During the century in which this process has been going on, the landed aristocracy have gradually disappeared, and the wealth of the country has passed into the hands of the money-lenders of the cities. The aim of the government may have been beneficent, and may produce the greatest happiness to the greatest number; but in such a community neither science, nor literature, nor art, have any place, and religion itself becomes degraded by the status of its votaries.
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Before we interfered, the practical proprietorship of the land was in the hands of a few princes or feudal lords, who derived from it immense revenues they had no means of spending, except in works of ostentation, which in certain stages of civilisation are as necessary for the employment of the masses as for their own glorification. In such a country as India the employment of one-half of the population in agriculture is sufficient to produce food for the whole, while the other half are free for any employment that may be available. A similar state of affairs prevailed apparently in Egypt in the time of the Pharaohs, but with very different results. The Egyptians had great and lofty ideas, and a hankering after immortality, that impressed itself on all their works. The southern Indians had no such aspirations; they had no history to which they could look back with pride, and their religion was an impure and degrading fetishism. It is impossible that anything very grand or imposing should come out of such a state of things. What they had to offer to their gods was a tribute of labour, and that was bestowed without stint. To cut a chain of fifty links out of a block of granite and suspend it between two pillars, was with them a triumph of art. To hollow deep cornices out of the hardest basalt, and to leave all the framings, as if of the most delicate woodwork, standing free, was with them a worthy object of ambition, and their sculptures are still inexplicable mysteries, from our ignorance of how it was possible to execute them. All that millions of hands working through centuries could do, has been done, but with hardly any higher motive than to employ labour and to conquer difficulties, so as to astonish by the amount of the first and the cleverness with which the second was overcome—and astonished we are; but without some higher motive true architecture cannot exist. The Dravidians had not even the constructive difficulties to overcome which enabled the mediæval architects to produce such noble fabrics as our cathedrals.
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The aim of architects in the Middle Ages was to design halls which should at the same time be vast, but stable, and suited for the accommodation of great multitudes to witness a lofty ritual. In their struggle to accomplish this they developed intellectual powers which impress us still through their works. No such lofty aims exercised the intellectual faculties of the Hindû. His altar and the statue of his god were placed in a dark cubical cell wholly without ornament, and the porch that preceded that was not necessarily either lofty or spacious. What the Hindû architect craved for, was a place to display his powers of ornamentation, and he thought he had accomplished all his art demanded when he covered every part of his building with the most elaborate and most difficult designs he could invent. Much of this ornamentation, it is true, is very elegant, and evidences of power and labour do impress the human imagination, often even in defiance of our better judgment, and nowhere is this more apparent than in these Dravidian temples. It is in vain, however, we look among them for any manifestation of those lofty aims and noble results which constitute the merit and the greatness of true architectural art, and which generally characterise the best works in the true styles of the western world.
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Turning from these generalities to the temples themselves, the first great difficulty hitherto experienced in attempting either to classify or describe them was that so very few plans of them had been published. There are probably upwards of thirty great Dravidian temples, or groups of temples, any one of which must have cost as much to build as an English cathedral, some a great deal more; but of all these there were few of which, till lately, trustworthy plans were available. This is, of course, irrespective of some early examples of village temples, and, it may be, of some groups which have been overlooked. If these temples had been built like those of the Greeks, or even as the Christian churches in the Middle Ages, on one uniform plan, changing only with the progress of time, one or two plans might have sufficed; but the fact is that, in nine cases out of ten, the larger Dravidian temples are a fortuitous aggregation of parts, arranged without plan, as accident dictated at the time of their erection; and, without plans, no adequate idea could be conveyed to those who have not seen them.
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In the south of the Bombay Presidency are some of the earlier examples of this style. Among these the great temple at Pattadakal, now known as Virûpâksha, we learn from inscriptions upon it, was built by Lokamahâdevî, one of the queens of the Chalukya king Vikramâditya II., who ruled from 733 to 747. It belongs, therefore, to the date formerly assigned to it on archæological grounds, as having been erected during the 8th century.¹ In plan it is almost exactly a duplicate of the Kailâs, as may be gathered from the annexed woodcut (No. 204).¹ Antecedently to the discovery of their relative dates we could readily believe the southern temple to be the older of the two, but certainly not distant in date, and this has been fully confirmed by the results of more recent research.
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¹ 'Archæological Survey of Western India,' vol. i. (1874) pp. 31 *et seqq.*, and plates 38-40; 'Cave Temples of India,' pp. 450, 451; 'Indian Antiquary,' vol. x. pp. 162-169.
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¹ There are four photographs of this temple in the ‘Architectural Antiquities of Dharwar and Mysore,’ plates 54-57; and one in ‘Archæological Survey of Western India,’ vol. i. plate 38.
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204. Plan of Great Temple at Pattadakal. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.
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Though not the oldest, this is the most important as well as the largest temple of this style in the Kanarese districts. It is the only one now in use in Pattadakal; the others, mostly of great age and interest, are used as dwellings or cattle-sheds. Four of the larger are all of the same style—the sikharas being all square pyramids, divided into distinct storeys, and each storey ornamented with imitation cells, alternately oblong and square. Their ornamentation is coarser or more archaic than that of the later Chalukyan style, and the domical termination of the spires is less graceful. They are wanting, too, in that general elegance of form and detail which are so characteristic of the latter, but are not without a purpose-like boldness of form, expression of stability, and a certain amount of grandeur, though this is more readily observable in the larger temples in the south of India than in those of Pattadakal. If we compare it with the more modern temples, however, it will be seen how much the latter lost by the gradually growing steepness of outline and attenuation of details. The more modern forms are not without a certain degree of elegance which is wanting in the more ancient, but in all the higher characteristics of design, the older are by far the finest examples.
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The Virûpâksha temple stands in an enclosure 224 ft. in length from east to west, and varying in width from 105 ft. in front with a large gateway on the east and a smaller one on the west (Woodcut No. 204). This court has been surrounded by small shrines or cells, some of which remain. The temple itself faces the east and has entrance porches also on the north and south sides. The hall or mandap measures 50 ft. 8 in. from north to south by 45 ft. 10 in. from east to west, and its roof is supported by sixteen massive pillars, each of one block 2 ft. 5 in. square and 7 ft. 5 in. high, crowned by deep bracket
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[Figure: 205. Virûpâksha Temple at Pattadakal—south elevation. (From a Drawing by Mr. H. Cousens.) Scale 20 ft. to 1 in.]
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capitals. These piers are arranged in fours, as in Kailâs temple, with pilasters against the walls. The lintels over them and the slabs of the roof, as well as the faces of the pillars, are covered with archaic sculptures, and the central square of the roof is filled by a great coiled Nâgarâja with five hoods, protected by a chhattra, and two Nâginîs with triple hoods are intertwined with his tail. This mandapa is lighted by twelve perforated stone windows — four in each wall, — an arrangement not found in modern temples. On the inner side of the hall stand two more square piers before the shrine, the doorway of which projects forward, forming a passage 10 ft. in length, into the cella which is 12 ft. square and contains the Saiva altar. A circumambulatory passage goes round this, lighted by two perforated windows in each outside wall.
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Like all the early Dravidian shrines, it is built of very large blocks of stone closely jointed and without any cement. The representation of the south elevation in Woodcut No. 205, will convey a better idea than any description of the style and appearance of the structure which, though dilapidated, is still a striking and imposing example of the class. The base is elaborately carved; in large panels in the walls are numerous representations of Siva in various forms, and of other gods; and the horseshoe arch is as abundantly represented as in a Buddhist temple.
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[Figure: 206. Sangamesvar Temple at Pattadakal. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.]
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A little to the north-west of this is the temple of Sangamesvar — now much dilapidated, but quite similar in plan and detail, if somewhat smaller and not so carefully finished, the mandapa is much ruined, as shown in Woodcut No. 206. Its interest lies in the fact that it is older by perhaps thirty or forty years than the preceding, having been erected in the reign of Vijayâditya (697-733). A third large Dravidian temple stands somewhat to the east of north from this last, and is still plainer — probably unfinished in its sculptured ornamentation; and to the north-west of it is one of several deserted temples here built in the northern Hindû style. These last two are represented on Woodcut No. 309 (vol. ii.), which places the two forms in vivid contrast. The building there shown on the left is this Sangamesvar temple — a storeyed pyramid of Dravidian architecture — and that on the right a tower in the northern style. In both the base is generally of a cubical form, but in the northern with a slight projection on each face.
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In a field outside the same village is an ancient Jaina temple also in this style, and probably belonging also to the 8th century. On the east it has an open portico, 19 ft. wide by 20 ft. 3 in., the roof of which is supported on eight pillars standing on a low screen wall with four on the floor. The mandap or hall is 32 ft. 3 in. wide and 30 ft. 8 in. from east to west, having four square pillars on the floor and half pillars against the walls, with two round columns at the entrance to the lobby or ante-chamber of the shrine — all about equally spaced apart. The shrine is 8 ft. 11 in. wide by 9 ft. 9 in. deep, and is surrounded by a pradakshina passage. A peculiar feature is a stone ladder in the north aisle of the mandap leading to the roof, in the tower on which is an upper shrine, a common feature in most of the Jaina temples.¹
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¹ ‘Archæological Survey of Western India’ vol. i. p. 35, and plate 45.
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207. Mâlegitti Temple at Bâdâmi. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.
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Though the temple of Mâlegitti Sivâlaya, outside the town of Bâdâmi is but small, it is a characteristic example of the early Dravidian style, and is probably one of the earliest, if not the only one, now existing in so complete preservation. On this account it seems deserving of representation (Plate VIII.). The storeyed character of the *sikhara* is well defined, its whole style is that of the Mâmallapuram raths, with a few sculptures in the panels, whilst the mandap is lighted by perforated windows on each side; and, as will be seen from the plan, Woodcut No. 207, it has a porch in front, facing east, supported on four very massive square pillars. The type of these latter indicates very distinctly that in age it is not far removed from the period when the caves were executed, whilst the similarity of pattern to those of the Virûpâksha temple at Pattadakal indicates a date about the 7th century—perhaps a century earlier than that of the great temple there.
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208. Meguti Temple at Aihole. Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.
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At Aihole, the old Jaina temple known as the Meguti temple, has lost its sikhara, but is one of the oldest shrines in the Dravidian style for which we have a date, since it was completed in the reign of Pulikesin II. by Ravikîrti, a Jain, in a.d. 634-635.² The arrangement shown in the plan, woodcut No. 208, is somewhat peculiar, the shrine being surrounded by eight small rooms, 8 ft. wide, in place of a pradakshina passage.³
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² ‘Indian Antiquary,’ vol. viii. p. 237.
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³ Perhaps the three divisions in front of the shrine might be regarded as one apartment.
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There is an antarâla or vestibule, between the shrine and the Mahâ-mandapa; and the roof of the latter was supported by sixteen square piers. It faces north, and has had an upper shrine, as many Jaina temples have. These three examples illustrate the different styles of early southern temples.