History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c25.s12: Sinnar, Ambarnâth, and Udayapur.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c25.s12
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Sinnar, Ambarnâth, and Udayapur.
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The examples already given will perhaps have sufficed to render the general form of the Indo-Aryan temple familiar to the reader, but as no two are quite like one another, their variety is infinite. There is one form, however, which became very fashionable about the 11th century, and continued to a much later date, and is so characteristic that it deserves some illustration.
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A fairly representative example occurs in the temple of Gondesvara at Sinnar, about 18 miles from Nâsik. The plan, (Woodcut No. 343), and the view, Plate XXV., will illustrate the
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343. Temple of Gondesvara at Sinnar, Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.
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arrangement and style of the temple, which belongs probably to the early part of the 12th century. About the 11th century a Yâdava dynasty of petty kings seems to have ruled over the present Nâsik district, and possibly had a seat here.¹ To them the erection of this temple is ascribed. It stands, outside the town, in a walled enclosure measuring inside 284 ft. from north to south by 314 ft. from east to west, with entrance gateways on the east and south. It is placed on a raised platform, 124 ft. by 94 ft., with the Nandi pavilion in front and four small shrines at the corners.² Except the crowning members of the sikhara, and the porches, the temple This image contains no text or other transcribable content.
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¹ 'Indian Antiquary,' vol. xii. pp. 119-129; 'Epigraphia Indica,' vol. ii., pp. 217, 225; and vol. vii., Appendix, p. 59.
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² This arrangement is called a 'Saiva-Panchâyatana'; the small shrine on the north-west is dedicated to Ganesa, that on the north-east to Nârâyana, that on the south-east to Sûrya, and on the south-west to Pârvatî or Mahishâsuri-mardanî.
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is in good preservation.¹ The mandap is 21 ft. 9 in. square with four highly sculptured pillars and respondent pilasters supporting the roof, which is of somewhat peculiar construction, as indicated in the section (Woodcut No. 344). The central square area is carried up as a dome to a height of 19 ft. richly carved; and the surrounding aisles have sloping roofs, also
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¹ The modern Marâthi finial placed on the tower may be a rude imitation of the sort of globe that crowned some of the Indo-Aryan temples, *e.g.*, that of Galaganâth at Pattadakal. (*Ante*, Woodcut No. 309); compare Woodcut No. 345. It has recently been replaced by a finial copied from another similar temple.
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344. Cross-section of Gondesvara Temple at Sinnar. Scale 20 ft. to 1 in.
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elaborately sculptured, whilst the front and side porches are in keeping with rich carving.
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The shrine with its sikhara, as will be seen from the plan and view, have the largest dimension through the centres of the opposite faces, the corners being suppressed by a series of smaller angles crossing them. The spire has then a band carved in fine diaper pattern on each face running up to its summit, and the flanks are ornamented in a way not met with in earlier temples, and differing from both the Northern and the Chalukyan styles. The whole contrasts with the older form illustrated by the surrounding smaller temples (seen in Plate No. XXV.). All the outer walls of the temple are covered with carving of great delicacy, in which figure sculpture is kept comparatively subordinate? The outer roof bears a trace of its descent from early Chalukyan temples.¹ The four small shrines are in the usual Indo-Aryan style and richly sculptured.
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¹ The section, Woodcut No. 344, from Mr. H. Cousen's survey drawing, shows the roof as hollow or double. This is the case in all these structures, and indeed in most Hindû temples. But as access could not be had to the interior in this case the representation is conjectural, but founded on the example of the Ambarnâth temple.—'Indian Antiquary,' vol. iii. p. 316, 2nd and 3rd plates.
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345. Temple at Udayapur, in Gwâliar territory.
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Another example, fortunately in a more perfect state, is at a place called Udayapur, about 40 miles north-north-east from Bhilsâ in the Gwâliar territory. As will be seen from the woodcut (No. 345) the porch is covered, as at Sinnar, with a low pyramidal roof, placed diagonally on the substructure, and rising in steps, each of which is ornamented with vases or urns of varying shapes. The tower is ornamented by four flat bands, of great beauty and elegance of design, between each of which are thirty-five little repetitions of itself, placed one above the other in five tiers, the whole surmounted by an amalasilâ, and a vase of very elegant design. As every part of this is carved with great precision and delicacy, and as the whole is quite perfect at the present day, there are few temples of its class which give a better idea of the style than this one. From an inscription copied in 1840, and translated by a pandit, it was believed that this temple was erected in A.D. 1059; but though the inscription is of doubtful value, other inscriptions prove that Udayâditya Pramâra was ruling in 1080,¹ and the style points to the latter part of the 11th century.
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¹ 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. ix. p. 548; 'Journal of the American Oriental Society," vol. vii. p. 53; Duff's 'Chronology of India,' p. 131 and refs.
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At Kalyân, near Bombay, there is a temple called Ambarnâth very similar to this, drawings and casts from which were made by orders of the Bombay government, in 1869.² It is, however, in a very ruinous state, and even when perfect could never have been equal to this one at Udayapur, and to many others in the Presidency. In it there is an inscription, dated in the Saka year 982, or A.D. 1060.³ It thus accords in age with all else we know of the style.
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² A portion of the casts are in the South Kensington Museum. Transcripts from fifteen of the drawings were published in the 'Indian Antiquary,' vol. iii. (1874), pp. 316ff.
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³ 'Journal of Bombay Br. Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. xii. p. 329.
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It measures about 84 ft. in length over all by 61 through the side porches, and consists of a cella and a mandap, 23 ft. square, the roof of the hall supported by four richly sculptured pillars, with a small dome in the middle, as at Sinnar, and all the ceiling elaborately carved. There are entrance porches on three sides — each with a lobby in the depth of the walls which are 11 ft. 8 in. thick at these points. A stair descends into the shrine, which is 13 ft. square, its floor being 7 ft. 9 in. below that of the mandap—which is an exceptional arrangement in Saiva temples,—though several instances occur. The temples also mostly face the east, this one the west. The richness of its exterior may be judged of from the photographic illustration (Plate XXVI.). Unfortunately it is now in a very ruinous condition.
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Hemâdpantî temples, as they are called, are pretty numerous in Berâr, the central districts of the Bombay Presidency and the northern parts of the Haidarâbâd territory—districts that belonged to the Devagiri kingdom of the 12th and 13th centuries, to which they seem mostly to belong. But the style is found to have prevailed far beyond the limits of that state, and even at an earlier date. From the later temples at least, in Berâr and Khandesh, the mythological representations on the outer walls had disappeared, and geometrical carvings had taken their place. Only upon the older ones—usually much ruined—as at Lonâr, do we find bands of figure sculpture round the mandap.¹
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¹ Forty years ago Major Gill made a tour through parts of West Berâr, photographing the Hemâdpantî temples at Sâkegâon, Jaypur-Kotlî, Amdâpur, Sirpur, Mehkar, Sendurjana, Lonâr, Dhotrâ and Sâtgâon. I expanded his brief notes for him into a somewhat detailed account; this he somewhat abridged and altered, and it was then printed in the ‘Proceeding of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ Feb. 1873, pp. 66-71. These abridged notes were used in the ‘Lists of Antiquarian Remains in Bombay Presidency’ (1885), pp. 226-241.