History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c20.s2: Hanamkonda and Worangal.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c20.s2
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Hanamkonda and Worangal.
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When the Haidarâbâd or Nizam's territory has been examined and completely surveyed, we shall probably be able to trace all the steps by which earlier examples developed into the metropolitan temple of Anamkond or Hanamkonda, the old capital, 4 miles north-west of Orangal or Worangal fort. According to an inscription on it, this temple was erected in A.D. 1162,¹ by Pratâpa Rudra, who, though not a Chalukya in blood, but a Ganapatîya or Kâkatîya, had succeeded to their possessions and their style.
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¹ 'Indian Antiquary,' vol. xi. pp. 9ff.
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The temple itself is triple, having three shrines of very considerable dimensions, dedicated to Śiva, Vishnu, and Sûrya, arranged round a central hall. In front of this temple is a great mandapa or portico, supported on pillars, of which one hundred and thirty-two are free standing, disposed in a varied pattern, but without any sign of the octagonal arrangement for a dome. Between this portico and the temple was the pavilion for the Nandi which has fallen within the last twenty-five years, and the huge granite bull still remains among the fallen pillars and lintels. This Nandi pavilion and the great pillared hall were all of granite
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252. Doorway of Great Temple at Hanamkonda. (From a Photograph.)
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and comparatively plain and devoid of ornament. The temple itself measures outside 102 ft. from east to west, by 83 ft. 8 in. from north to south, and stands on a raised basement or podium 10 ft. wide all round it.¹ Like others of these late temples, this one was never finished. It was too extensive for one king's reign, even for one so powerful as he was who undertook it, and before it was heartily taken up again the Muhammadans were upon them (in A.D. 1310), and there was an end of Hindû greatness and of Hindû art.
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¹ Views of the hall or mantapam and the temple are given in Workman's 'Through Town and Jungle,' pp. 127 and 129.
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Some of its details, however, are of great beauty, especially the entrances to the shrines, which are objects on which the architects, as usual, lavished their utmost skill. The preceding woodcut (No. 252) will explain the form of those of the great temple, as well as the general ordinances of the pillars of the
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253. Kîrtti Stambha at Orangal. (From a Photograph.)
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great mandapa. Nothing in Hindû art is more pleasing than the pierced slabs which the Chalukyas used for screens and windows. They are not, so far as I recollect, used extensively in other styles, but as used by them are highly ornamental and appropriate, both externally and internally.
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The pillars, too, are rich, without being overdone;¹ and as the central four in the main hall are of the same design and beautifully carved, the effect of the whole is singularly varied, but at the same time pleasing and elegant. The roof also is covered by great slabs richly sculptured.
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¹ The most elaborately chased pillars of this style are to be seen in the temple of Râmâppâ near Pâlampet, about 30 miles north-east from Hanamkonda.
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In Orangal or Worangal fort there are four Kîrtti Stambhas, as they are called (Woodcut No. 253), of one pattern, facing one another, which have formed the gateways to a large temple that once occupied the centre of the area, but of which only a group of pillars and lintels belonging to its south-west corner now remains. The distance between the north and south gateways is 480 ft., and between those on the east and west 433 ft., leaving ample space for a temple of unusual size and splendour.² It cannot be said they are particularly elegant specimens of art. Their main interest lies in their being the lineal descendants of the four gateways at Sânchi (Woodcut No. 38), and they are curious as exemplifying how, in the course of a thousand years or thereabouts, a wooden style of building may lose all traces of its origin as clearly as they do; for it seems most unlikely that any such form could have been invented by any one using stone constructions, and that only.
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² Cousens’ ‘Lists of Antiquarian Remains in the Nizam’s Territory,’ pp. 46f. To Mr Cousens is due the materials for the revision of this account of the Worangal and Hanamkonda remains.
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There are also in the Orangal fort a great number of smaller temples and shrines, in the same style as the great temple, and, like it, apparently mostly dedicated to Siva, from the presence of his bull almost everywhere. Most are ruined; and, judging from appearances, I am inclined to believe this is owing to Moslim violence. The mode of building is without mortar, and the joints are by no means well fitted. The style is also remarkably free from figure-sculpture, which is generally the thing that most easily excites the iconoclastic feelings of the followers of the Prophet.
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Lastly a simple example of the style in a village temple has been cited at a place called Buchhanapalli, not far from Haidarâbâd³ (Woodcut No. 254). There are four principal faces on the walls of the shrine, larger than the others: three occupied by niches, the fourth by the entrance. The roof is in steps, and with a flat band on each face in continuation of the larger face below. The summit ornament is a vase, in this instance apparently incomplete. The porch is simple, consisting only of sixteen pillars, disposed equidistantly, without any attempt at the octagonal dome of the Jains or the varied
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³ ‘Buchropully’ was placed on Mr Fergusson’s map 50 miles west from Haidarâbâd, and in that position (Lat. 17° 31′ N., Long. 77° 48′ E.) is the village of Buchhanapalli, 14 miles north from Dharûr railway station. Mr Cousens (‘Lists of Antiquarian Remains in the Nizam’s Territories,’ p. 2) conjectured that it might be ‘Bachropully,’ 12 miles north-west of Secundarabad. In ‘Glimpses of the Nizam’s Dominions’ by A. Claude Campbell’ (1898), pp. 452 and 459, are two views of the shrine of a Hindû temple at ‘Bichpalli.’ This place is 10 miles south-east from Indur; and the temple, which is of unusual plan and considerable merit, stands on a rocky knoll near the village. It consists of shrine, hall, and porch, but the sikhara and roof are ruined. Round the shrine is an open *pradakshina*, in which are inserted short circular pillars surmounted by rampant Vyâlîs.—Cousens, ‘Lists of Antiquarian Remains: Nizam’s Territory,’ p. 63.
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254. Temple at Buchhanapalli. (From a Photograph.)
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arrangements subsequently attempted. The sikhara is a straight-lined cone, and its decorations in steps is as unlike the Dravidian spire in storeys as it is to the curvilinear outline of the Jaina and northern temples. The porch too, is open, and consists of columns spaced equidistantly over its floor, without either the bracketing arrangements of the southern or the domical forms of the northern styles. Situated as it was locally, half-way between the Dravidian and northern styles, the Chalukyan retained or borrowed occasionally a feature or form from one or from the other, but not to such an extent as to obliterate its individuality, or to prevent its being recognised as a separate and distinct style of architecture.