The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c9.36

c9.36

A "Siva" shrine, in the technical sense, has one entrance facing west, or towards the setting sun, and the roof is of what Fergusson calls the Dravidian type—*i.e.* it is crowned by a dome, evidently derived from the stûpa, but in all buildings now extant reduced to a solidly built symbol. The coincidence that "Vishnu" shrines are chiefly confined to Northern India, and those of the "Siva" type to the south, has nothing to do with "Dasyu provinces,"¹ or with any ethnological question. It is explained by the fact that the schools of Hindu theology which take Vishnu for their *Ishta-deva*² are in the great majority in the north, while those which are the exponents of Saiva philosophy, taking Siva as their *Ishta-deva*, predominate largely in the south. Fergusson's conjecture that Saivism is "an aboriginal superstition assimilated by the Brahmans"³ is pure nonsense.