History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c25.s15: Visveswar, Benares.

History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c25.s15

Language: English

Visveswar, Benares.

v2.c25.s15.1

If you ask a Brâhman of Benares to point out to you the most ancient temple of his city, he inevitably leads you to the

v2.c25.s15.2

347. Temple of Vriji, Chitor. (From a Photograph.)

Visveswar,¹ as not only the most holy, but the oldest of its sacred edifices. Yet it is known, and cannot be disputed, that the temple, as it now stands, was erected from the foundation in the 18th century, to replace one of Kîrtti Visveswar, that had been thrown down and desecrated by the bigot Aurangzîb. This he did (in 1659) in order that he might erect on the most venerated spot of the Hindûs his mosque, whose tall minarets still rear their heads in insult over all the Hindû buildings of the city. As has already been remarked (page 87), there is hardly any great city in Hindustan that can show so few evidences of antiquity as Benares. The Buddhist remains now existing at Sârnâth hardly can be said to belong

v2.c25.s15.4

¹ Visveswara or Visvanâtha—"the lord of the universe" is the name under which Siva is worshipped at Benares.

v2.c25.s15.5

348. Temple of Visveswar. (From Prinsep's 'Views in Benares.') No Scale.

v2.c25.s15.6

to the city. It must be remembered that the iconoclastic zeal of the Muhammadans was ever ready to burst forth against the fanes of Hindû idolatry. And after the defeat of Jayachandra of Kanauj, in 1194, Benares fell into the hands of Mu'izzu-ddîn Ghûrî, and the duty of the governor was to dispense Muhammadan law, and specially to repress idolatry. We can understand what this meant for the old shrines; and during the next 350 years, the city was repeatedly subjected to pillage. In the 15th century it was under the rule of the Sharqî rulers of Jaunpur, and in the later struggles between the Mughals and Afghâns it frequently suffered severely, and, in fact, till the time of Akbar the ostensible support of Hindûism was forcibly restrained. The city, as rebuilt after each disaster, apparently shifted its site in a south-westerly direction, probably helped to some extent by changes of the course of the river. And after such a history one could hardly expect to find many traces of its ancient architecture, though much may still be buried between the present city and Sârnâth. Even the temple of Kîrtti Visveswar, which Aurangzib destroyed, was not a very ancient structure. When desecrated it was the principal, and probably the most splendid, edifice of its class in the city. Now there is no material evidence that any important building now remaining was erected there before the time of Akbar (A.D. 1556-1605).

v2.c25.s15.7

The present temple is a double one: two towers or spires almost exactly duplicates of each other. One of these is represented in the preceding woodcut (No. 348), and they are connected by a porch, crowned by a dome borrowed from the Muhammadan style, which, though graceful and pleasing in design, hardly harmonises with the architecture of the rest of the temple. The spires are each 51 ft. in height, and covered with ornament to an extent quite sufficient even in this style. The details too are all elegant, and sharply and cleanly cut, and without any evidence of vulgarity or bad taste; but they are feeble as compared with the more ancient examples, and the forms of the pyramidal parts have lost that expression of power and of constructive propriety which were so evident in the earlier stages of the art. It is, however, curiously characteristic of the style and place, that a building, barely 50 ft. in length, and the same in height, should be the principal temple in the most sacred city of the Hindûs, and equally so that one hardly 200 years old should be considered as the most ancient, while it is only that which marks this most holy spot in the religious cosmogony of the Hindûs.