The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c7.367

v1.c7.367

To controvert these documentary proofs and arguments, the only fact of any moment that has yet been advanced is that Indian stone architecture in the first and second centuries before Christ shows evident signs of a transition from wood to stone, which could not have been the case had it existed and flourished from many centuries before it. It may at once be conceded that the caves of Behar and of the Western Ghats bear indications of their having been formed after wooden models. The same is, however, not the case with the excavations in Orissa. Were it otherwise, still the fact would not, we contend, necessarily imply that those caves indicate the first stage of transition from wood to stone. It is not to be denied that masonry houses must have allowed huts and wooden structures, and the peculiarities of the latter must necessarily, therefore, be traceable in the former; but those peculiarities do not, by themselves, suffice to indicate the exact age when the transition from wood to stone first took place. There is a spirit of conservatism, a mannerism, or a survival of custom, in architectural ornamentation so strong that it preserves intact forms long after the lapse of the exigencies which first lead to their production. Many peculiarities in European architecture, even of this century, such as the Grecian *triglyphs* and *mathles*, avowedly the counterparts of wooden models, may be ascribed to this cause; and in India such indications may be met with without number both in Hindu and in Muhammadan edifices of the last two centuries. In the fort at Agra may be seen, by the sides of the marble hall of the Dewan Khas, two small pavilions of white marble with curvilinear roofs formed entirely after the model of thatched huts. They are repeated in the palace of Shah Jehan at Delhi, and like-wise at Futtehpur Sikri and other Muhammadan cities. Slightly modified they may be seen also on the palace at Bharatpur, and on other Hindu buildings. Until the end of the last century, a common form of temple for Kālī in Bengal was a quadrangular oblong room with two sloping curvilinear roofs, with gable ends in exact imitation of the commonest kind of hut known in the country. One of the kind still exists in Calcutta, close by the Nabaratna in Sobhabazar, and we have seen several at Chandernagar and elsewhere. Such structures bear the same name, *bānglā*, which is given to the huts of which they are counterparts, and in their details leave out nothing which can be easily imitated in brick, or stucco. Few, however, we fancy, would venture to appeal to them as evidences of a recent transition from wood to brick in Agra, Delhi, or Bengal.