The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c14.9

c14.9

Architecturally we are not concerned with the primitive Aryan rite of circumambulating a sacred hill or mountain with which the Vishnu shrine is connected, but certainly the Indian sikhara is of far greater antiquity than the sixth or seventh century, the date which Fergusson erroneously gave to the great Buddhist shrine of Bodh-Gayâ. What is perhaps the earliest and most interesting representation of it seems to have escaped the notice of orientalists altogether. It occurs in one of the bas-reliefs of Nineveh discovered by Layard, and described by him as the Palace of Sennacherib.