The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c7.376

v1.c7.376

Most of the oldest remains now accessible, are, as already stated, Buddhist, and they are monumental in their character, either *tumuli* over the remains of the dead, or pillars and inscriptions bearing royal mandates. A'soka is said to have built innumerable temples; but no unquestionably authentic remains thereof are now to be met with. The caves of Khandagiri, which are [24] likewise of Buddhist origin, afford examples of the style of dwellings common during the second and the third centuries before the Christian era, and probably for some time earlier; but they include no structures that may be strictly called temples. The Behar caves, however, which are of a somewhat later age, have halls with an apse at one end enclosing a *caitya*, and designed expressly for public worship. Some of the oldest caves of Western India improved upon this idea, and produced more ostentatious places for the purpose. Leaving them aside, and generalising upon built temples, and temples only, we find the Buddha-gayā and the Nālandā Buddhist temples so closely similar to Hindu structures of the same class that their style may be very strictly described as common to both the Hindus and the followers of S'ākya on this side of the Nurbudda, and be appropriately designated, the Indo-Aryan, or Northern India. But as it took a wide range under the Buddhists, and assumed very diverse forms in different parts of India, as also in Burmah, Ceylon and Java, Mr. Fergusson has made two distinct classes of it, separating the purely Hindu forms of the class under the head of Northern Hindu, and leaving the rest as Buddhist. Both these classes have single chambers, surmounted with more or less sloping towers or steeples; whereas the Tamulian temples are many-chambered and many storied, the upper stories gradually receding, till reduced to a single small chamber, which is surmounted with a dimical structure. Thus the latter differ materially from the style familiar with the Northern Indian races, and form a separate class. It is, however, not unknown in Northern India, for both in Bengal and the Upper Provinces many examples of it under the name of *Pañcaratna*, *Navaratna*⁵² &c., may be met with, some of considerable age: there they appear as strictly Hindu—a variety, but still a variety, of Hindu structures,—and not Tamulian. The northern Hindu class of temples have several subordinate groups or orders, of which (a) the Orissan or Central Indian, (b) the Bengali, and (c) the Northern Indian, styles, are the most prominent. Examples of the first style are to be met with in the whole of Orissa, in Sambhalpur and Chutia Nagpur, in the eastern parts of Central India, and the southern part of Behar. The second style is confined within the limits of Bengal proper. The third takes the whole sweep of Northern India, from Benares to Guzerat. The temples of Kashmir constitute a class by themselves, being Indian in plan, but peculiar in their details and ornaments. Some of the later Northern Indian temples shew a considerable admixture of Saracenic elements in their composition, and these may be fitly included in a distinct order, the transitional, or mixed style. Thus we have—