The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c14.32

c14.32

Siva and Vishnu shrines occur in pairs at Pattadakal in the south-west of India (Pl. LIX); at Khajurâho in Central India; at Bhuvanêshwar in Orissa; and no doubt many other instances could be cited in every part of India had the great quantity of archæological material collected since Fergusson wrote not been arranged according to his unscientific categories. In every instance where these pairs are found, archæologists, Indian as well as European, have described the Vishnu shrine as northern, or Indo-Aryan, and the Siva shrine as southern, or Dravidian, regardless of the locality in which they are placed and of the obvious fact that the craftsmanship of both belongs to the same school and often is of precisely the same date—the only distinction between the two temples as regards style being in the symbolism.