History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c25.s6.4

v2.c25.s6.4

A good monograph of the Orissan style would convey a more correct idea of what Indian art really is than a similar account of any other style we are acquainted with in India. From the erection of the temples of Parasurâmeswar and others, perhaps in the 7th century, to that of Jagannâth at Purî, A.D. 1100, the style steadily progresses without admixture of foreign elements, while the examples are so numerous that one might be found for every fifty years of the period, and we might thus have a chronometric scale of Hindû art during these centuries that would be invaluable for application to other places or styles. It is also in Orissa and Kalinga, if anywhere, that we may hope to find the *incunabula* that will explain much that is now mysterious in the forms of the temples and the origin of many parts of their ornamentation.