History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c25.19

v2.c25.19

The instances of early temples discovered during the last forty years, however, bears some testimony to the numbers that must have existed all over the country prior to the Musalmân conquests. These are very numerous in the west and south-west of Bengal, where the Aryan element in the population is a minimum. No temples are mentioned in the Vedas or the older Indian writings, and were not required for the simple quasi-domestic rites of their worship; and so long as they remained pure perhaps no temples were built. With the introduction of the Brahmanic ritual they became a necessity. It is to be understood then that though we may use the term Indo-Aryan as the most convenient to describe and define the limits of the northern style, the name it is intended to convey is, that the style arose in a country which they once occupied, and in which they have left a strong impress of their superior mental power and civilisation, and over which the languages spoken are of Sanskritic descent.