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The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c8: Chapter II

The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c8

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English

Contents

Chapter II

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[27] Construction of Orissan Temples. Shape of the original habitation of man. Oldest lithic monuments, rectangular. Indian temples, cubical. Module of Benares temples. Bengali temples. Orissan temples; their projections; steeples; upper chambers; plinths; pinnacles; porches; dancing halls; refectories; court-yards; entrance gates. Materials used in the construction of the temples,—laterite, sandstone, chlorite, granite, gneiss. Mode of building; irregular, horizontal, and cyclopean styles. Mortar; clamps; ghooting or *kaṅkar* cement; architraves; beams; wood.

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Considerable difference of opinion exist as to the form which was first adopted by man for the formation of his dwelling. The models he had before him to work upon were natural caves or caverns, which were all more or less rounded, and deficient in sharp well-marked angles, and they led to the theory that the earliest habitations of the human race were circular in plan and rounded in form. In support of this opinion, it is said that the dwellings of the ancient Gauls were circular huts built with wood, and lined with mud; and the pile huts of Switzerland were of a similar nature.¹ On the other hand, nothing was likely to prove more troublesome to primitive builders than circular designs, and the earliest examples of dwellings still extant in America, Africa, and Oceania, are mostly rectangular, i.e. those houses which are intended to be permanent and fixed, have straight sides, and rectangular corners, while those which are intended to be easily moved about, are more or less circular. Ascending from wood, wattle and mud to bricks and stones, this view of the question appears to receive peculiar confirmation; for the oldest houses and temples were, with a few rare exceptions, straight-lined in their ground plan, and perpendicular for at least a part of their height. The oldest lithic monuments of human art still extant, are the Pyramids of Egypt, and their chambers bear out this opinion in every particular. They are all rectangular enclosures with upright walls. The temples of that country were also of the same character, and the palaces of Assyria and Babylon did not anywhere depart from this rule. Some of the Pelasgic tombs in Greece enclosed circular chambers; but as they were erected long after the time of the first ten dynasties of Manetho, and produced at a period when the art of building had been brought to a comparatively high state of improvement, they cannot controvert the theory regarding the outline of the earliest buildings. It may be stated, however, that while in buildings the circular form is difficult, in graves, it is the simplest, and most readily produced, nature helping in a few years to complete where the art of man fails to attain the object, and the transition from the circular to the rectangular plan, as in the Pyramids, implies a considerable advance in civilization and architectural ingenuity.

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¹ Lubbock thinks they were rectangular. *Prehistoric Times*, p. 126.

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**Ground plans of temples:** As regards temples in Northern India, the rectangular plan was everywhere the most prevalent, and it is difficult to notice an exception to the rule. At first sight the topes may appear to be different; but if their character be carefully studied it will be found, that there was no departure from the rectangular design of temples. The Dehgopas of Burmah are mere local adaptations of the Indian tope, and none of them is of greater antiquity than the middle of the 6th century A.D., and as they are funeral, or cinerary monuments, and not temples, they may be left altogether out of consideration. It is said that there are, in some parts of Bengal, temples designed for the observance of the mystic rites enjoined in the Tantras, which are triangular in their ground plan; but as they are recent structures, designed for a sectarial purpose, they do not contradict the remark regarding the primitive form of Indian temples. Generally speaking, temples in Northern India are not only rectangular in plan, but cubical in the form of their body. From Orissa to the foot of the Himālaya, there is scarcely a single exception to this rule.² In the *Agni Purāṇa*,³ it is ordained, that the ground plan of every building should have four equal sides, and the *Jñāna-ratna-prakāśa*⁴ and the *Mānasāra* support the same opinion. Figures of Viṣṇu and some other divinities may be found located in oblong rooms, but such structures are nowhere reckoned as temples (*mandirs*). Again, in Southern India, the square chamber for temples appears to be the rule, and oblong cells the exception.

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² The chamber of the Jyeṣṭheśvara temple on the Takht i Suleman hill, in Kāshmir, is circular, but its ground plan is a square with the corners notched with three salient and four re-entering angles.

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³ *Agni Purāṇa*, Ed. *Bib. Ind*, p. 122.

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⁴ MS. As. Soc. *J.R.P.*, fol. 51.

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**[28] Ground plans of houses :** In the case of buildings other than temples, the ground plan no doubt varied according to circumstances, and works on architecture describe a great number of forms. The *Rāja-mārtaṇḍa*, an astrological work ascribed to Rājā Bhoja of Dhār, enumerates sixteen different kinds as the most noteworthy. These are : (i) oblong,—*Āyata*; (ii) square,—*caturasra*; (iii) circular,—*vṛtta*; (iv) oblong, with a rectangular court-yard in the middle, very like the Roman compluvium,—*bhadrāsana*; (v) discus-shaped, i.e. circular with lunette projections, or wings, on the four sides,—*cakra*; (vi) linear or long and narrow with two unequal wings,—*viṣamabāhu*; (vii) triangular,—*trikoṇa*; (viii) cart-shaped, or quadrangular with a long triangular projection on one side,—*śakatākṛta*; (ix) staff-like or long and narrow like a barrack,—*daṇḍa*; (x) quadrangular, with the opposite sides hollow-arched, or concave, like the mouth of the musical instrument called *paṇava*,—*paṇavasamsthāna*; (xi) like the musical instrument called *muraja*, (I know not what this is); (xii) wide-fronted,—*vṛhanmukham*; (xiii) heart-shaped like a palm-leaf fan,—*vyajana*; (xiv) circular with five projections like a tortoise with its four projecting feet, and head; (xv) arched like a bow,—*dhanuḥ*; (xvi) horse-shoe shaped like the winnowing fan,—*śūrpa*.⁵ Of these the oblong with a rectangular court-yard in the middle was held in the highest estimation, and still continues the favourite, almost every Hindu dwelling house of any pretension in Bengal being built in that plan, whence *bhadrāsana* has become the ordinary name of a dwelling house in the present day; and in the north-west it is very common. For comfort, convenience, light, and ventilation, it is perhaps the best that could be designed in a warm climate and it is worthy of note that European architects have of late adopted it in designing several public buildings in Bengal. In the *Mṛcchakaṭika*, which dates from the first century before Christ, there is an account of a house of this description, which had successively eight court-yards;⁶ and the grandeur of a house is generally reckoned in almost every part of India in accordance with the number of court-yards it comprises. The merits of these several kinds of houses are thus described in the *Rāja-mārtaṇḍa*: "The oblong insures success everywhere; the square brings in money; the circular promotes health and prosperity; the rectangular with a courtyard fulfils all desires; the lunetted-wheel causes poverty, and the unequal-winged bereavement; the triangular makes the owner a king, and the cart-shaped leads to loss of wealth. Cattle die away if the plan be staff-like, and vision is lost by the *paṇava* shape. The *muraja* shape causes the death of the owner's wife; the wide front loss of wealth; and the fan shape, loss of situation. The tortoise leads to theft, so does the bow shape; while the horse-shoe form causes loss of wealth."⁷ Regarding the nature of the ground on which the house is to be built, it is said: "men prosper, if the ground slope to the east; wealth is acquired, if the southern side be elevated, but it is lost if the west side slope down, and there is certain destruction if the north side be high."⁸ As domestic architecture, however, does not fall within the scope of this work, it is not necessary to enquire into the subject further.

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⁵ āyataṃ caturasrañca pravṛttaṃ bhadrāsanantathā / cakraṃ viṣamabāhuñca trikoṇaṃ śakaṭākṛtim // daṇḍaṃ paṇavasamsthānaṃ murajañca vṛhanmukham / vyajanaṃ kūrmarūpañca dhanuḥ śūrpañca ṣoḍaśaḥ //

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⁶ Wilson's *Hindu Theatre*, I, p. 82.

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⁷ *Rāja-mārtaṇḍa*.

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⁸ *Ibid.*

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**Relative proportions of Benares temples:** According to the builders of Benares, the body of the temple is the module upon which the rest of its parts are to be calculated. The length, breadth and height of the body should be the same and its steeple, *Surrā*, SK. *cūḍā*, should vary according to the size of the temple and the number of pinnacles it is intended to bear, from 1¼ and 1½ to 2 and 2½ lengths.⁹ The plinth is to be one-ninth of the total length, i.e., one yard if the temple be nine yards high. The door in that case should be 7 feet 5 inches by 4 feet 9. In small-sized temples the door is generally one-fourth of the cube. The first member above the spire, is a thick square plate named the *Rāmarékhā*, from certain denticulations on its edges, having some resemblance to the sectarial mark of the followers of Rāma,—a common ornament of the upper edge of projecting stones. In a temple 9 yards in height, it should be 12 inches in depth. It is intended to cover the vent of the spire, and form the basement of the *kalaśa*, or crowning member of the spire. Above it is placed a small compressed ribbed dome, 15 inches thick, the [29] *āmra*, or *amlaśilā*, so called from its resemblance to the fruit of the emblic myrobolan. In the *Agni Purāṇa*, and in the *Mānasāra*, it is named Udumbara, and likened to the fruit of the *Ficus glomerata*. It is surmounted by a ribbed conical construction called *morā*, and having very much the appearance of ribbed, inverted funnel, or a lotus reversed, 9 inches long. It has been, by some, called an umbrella.

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⁹ The head *mistri* of the Mahārājā of Vizianagaram is my principal authority, and I had his opinion tested by two other builders at Benares. The practice is to divide the temple into three parts; (1) the plinth or *kursi*: (2) the body or *janghi*, including the cornice and the base mouldings; (3) the spire or *cūḍā*, comprising base mouldings, spire proper, turrets, pinnacle, trident, and flagstaff. James Prinsep has noticed the same arrangement, but he does not give their relative proportions. Prinsep's *Benares*. Under the head of elevation of a Hindu Temple, Rām Rāz quoting Kāśyapa, classifies all temples into five classes according to their respective heights. These are (1) *sāntika*, "moderate", (2) *pauṣṭika*, "bulky"; (3) *jayada*, "triumphant"; (4) *adbhuta*, "admirable"; and (5) *sarvakāma*, "all-pleasing"; the breadth of these five kinds of temples being divided into seven, six, five, four and three parts in due order; ten, nine, eight, and seven of those parts are given to their respective heights" (*Arch. of the Hindus*, p. 49). General Cunningham has reduced these proportions into the following tabular form:

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| (1) | Modest, | height | 1 | 3/7 | breadth |
| (2) | Bulky, | " | 1 | 1/2 | " |
| (3) | Triumphant | " | 1 | 3/5 | " |
| (4) | Wonderful, | " | 1 | 3/4 | " |
| (5) | All-pleasing, | " | 2 | | " |

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Fig. 9 Primitive Benares Temple

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Fig. 10 Typical Benares Temple

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Fig. 11 Typical Orissa Temple

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Fig. 12 Indo-Saracenic Temple.

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Fig. 13 Bengali Temple

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Then follows the neck, *galā*, 2½ inches, serving as the support of a rounded moulding, *kāṅgani*, 3 inches thick. A neck then follows, and on it is placed a vase, or jar, named *gāgri*. It should be 18 inches high. Upon it stands a second jar, 9 inches long, and sometimes a third of a smaller size, which supports the metal cap and the trident, or the discus, each of which should measure 18 inches in length. The steeple is generally slender, having straight sloping sides, but occasionally its outline is curvilinear. In its simplest form, the steeple rises from above the cornice without any basement; but generally it has four little turrets or pinnacles, *khirkibhadras*, on the four corners: in ornate forms the turrets are ranged in tiers, and their number is multiplied till, in the most elaborate specimens, there are as many as 108 of them, arranged in six tiers.

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**Various kinds of temple compared:** Two specimens of this form of temples are shown on the margin, (woodcuts, Nos. 9 and 10). The first (No. 9) has been copied from an original in the neighbourhood of Viśveśvara's temple at Benares. It is the simplest of its kind, and has a perfectly plain spire. The second (No. 10) has the surfaces of its walls and spire broken by light projections, and its corners set off by partially attached turrets, but without any attempt at ornamentation. The most perfect specimens of this style are seen in the temples of Viśveśvara and Kedāra at Benares.¹⁰ If they be compared with the Orissan form as delineated in woodcut No. 11, it will at once be perceived that the latter had supplied the model on which the former has been built, but that the builders have greatly improved upon the original plan. The thick heavy tower of the primitive design has been replaced by a slender steeple, the projections thereon by more or less attached turrets, the crowning ornaments reduced in bulk and improved in appearance, the walls of the body divested of heavy projections, and embellished with a number of delicate pilasters, and the whole set off on a well-raised and elegant plinth. All the improvements, additions and alterations are, however, strictly Indian and original,—nothing borrowed from people beyond the boundary of this country. In No. 12, the case is, however, entirely altered. In it the body of a pure Hindu edifice is embellished with foiled arches and decorated battlements in the true Saracenic style, and capped with a ribbed dome [30] of the same order,—a combination which destroys the peculiarities of both, and results in a hybrid entirely devoid of majesty, elegance and beauty. Specimens of this mixed, or transitional, style of construction may be found in Benares, Allahabad, Mathurā, and in the Western Presidency generally.

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¹⁰ Vide Prinsep's *Illustration of Benares*.

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**Bengali Temple:** No. 13, represents a specimen of the Bengali style, where the cubical body of a northern temple is covered over by four curvilinear sloping roofs in exact imitation of thatch, and the point of junction at the centre surmounted by a miniature representation of the original construction. This structure has no distinct cornice, its place being supplied by the arched ends of the projecting roofs under which ornamentations are produced with great care to represent the ends of the frame work. This style is distinct from that of Benares on the one side, and of Orissa on the other, and hence it is, that it has become necessary to divide into three groups the style which Mr. Fergusson has included under one name.

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**Shape of Orissan temples:** The Orissan temple in its simplest form is a cube, rising from the ground without a plinth, and its tower is the result of four battered walls gradually approaching each other to supply the place of a roof, the top a frustum—being closed in with a thick slab, which in the Benares, or the Jain style, is represented by the Rāmrekhā. Such a chamber dedicated to an image can require but one doorway, and the first idea of ornamentation would be suggested by the necessity of a dripstone, or hood-mould, or weather-moulding over it to throw off rain. To render this moulding effectual, its projection should be considerable, and to support it, two pilasters become absolutely necessary. These produce the most primitive porch, and a great number of such structures may be seen in every part of Orissa. From pilasters, to pillars the transition is easy enough, but it has not been frequent, the great majority of temples having pilasters, and not pillars. The foundation of these pilasters causes the first break in the square ground-plan of the earliest temples. Vide woodcut, No. 14. *A priori*, one may suppose that poverty of invention, or more probably a love for symmetry, would lead to a repetition of the projection on all the four sides of the temple chamber, and this is exactly what is met with in the fanes of Bhuvaneśvara and Puri—a square outline with four projections as shewn on the margin : woodcut No. 15. The projections in such cases are not deep, and the pillars, when employed, occur only on the side of the

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Fig. 14.

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Fig. 15.

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Fig. 16.

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Fig. 17

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entrance. The proportion of the projection to the entire length of the temple varies from 1 to 3 to 2 to 5. The depth of the projections varies even more largely ; indeed it is doubtful if there ever was any fixed rule on the subject.

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When the architectural advantage of these projections was once perceived, and the nakedness of large walls had to be covered, they were repeated two, three or four times, as is to be seen in the temples of Rājarāṇi, Kapileśvara, Rāmeśvara, &c., &c., (woodcut No. 16). The next step towards improvement, was the development of these projections into distinct pilasters such as are to be seen on the temple of Ananta Vāsudeva at Bhuvaneśvara. The three-fold projection of each side is there converted into seven pilasters by slight intermediate breaks, and the artistic effect is thereby very much heightened. On the great tower of Bhuvaneśvara and other large structures, the same arrangement has been carried out to great advantage. When these projections are particularly deep, and the intermediate spaces wide, they assume the character of buttresses, which add considerably both to the mechanical strength and the beauty of the buildings by an agreeable play of light and shade. But whether deep and wide, or flat and narrow, they are always carried on along the whole length of the structure to the top of the spire, and when divided into pilasters of low relief, they give a ribbed, or fluted, appearance to the whole. On richly ornamented temples they are, on the steeple, carved into strings of small models of temples in some relief, so as to obviate the aesthetic defect of slender pilasters of great length. On the body of the building, the same object is attained by opening two or three tiers of niches for the reception of statues, or bas-reliefs. At Benares, the projections under notice are either omitted, or shaped into pilasters, and the little models are more or less detached from the spire so as to produce distinct chaplets or pinnacles, which greatly improve the appearance of the building. In Jain temples, these pinnacles are completely detached so as to convert them into little pavilions. In Bengal they are altogether wanting.

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**Tower :** Ignorant of the principles of the true arch, the architects of Orissa found the greatest difficulty in covering large areas with a substantial roofing. The Jain plan of triangular blocks cutting off the corners of the original square, and by two or three repetitions reducing considerably its size, so as ultimately to be fit to be covered by a single block of a moderate size, (woodcut No. 17), was not sufficient for them, and single slabs could seldom be found of sufficient length and breadth, and so free from defect, as to suffice for temples of the size of the Great Tower of Bhuvaneśvara. Their only resource was, therefore, the horizontal arch of parallel projecting courses of stone in flat layers, **[31]** or corbelling which they could carry out to any extent they chose (woodcut No. 18). As they always built with stone, and that material was nowhere scarce, the great thickness required in the supporting walls to resist the weight and thrusts of a large mass of superstructure was, to them, a matter of no consideration, and the great height to which they had to carry their towers to close large areas by very gradual projections, served only to heighten the grandeur and majesty of their sacred piles. The edges of the projecting stones, both within and without, were so cut off, as to produce an even outline ; but sometimes the inner edges were decorated with mouldings, or left untouched, giving to the ceiling the appearance of a flight of steps reversed. The plan of building adopted, was the simplest, and at the same time the most effectual.

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In the middle of the 7th century when the Great Tower of Bhuvaneśvara was erected, the builders had acquired sufficient proficiency in balancing their materials in a projecting arch to avoid the necessity of lofty towers, and yet the artistic effect of the tower being highly prized they generally utilised the space within it by dividing it into two or three stories ; the rooms being used for the deposit of jewelry and other valuable treasures of the temple ; serving thus the same purpose which the *opisthodomus* did in Grecian sanctuaries. The chambers are never accessible to outsiders, and I could not ascertain how they were lighted or ventilated. The stairs are enclosed within one of the walls of the temple, and reached through the sanctuary itself. It is said by the priests at Bhuvaneśvara, that about a hundred years ago, a man had ascended with a lamp in hand to the upper story of the Great Tower, but through the displeasure of the presiding divinity, he was suffocated to death before he could attempt to retrace his steps, and that, ever since, nobody had attempted to explore that much dreaded chamber. The tower of the great temple at Puri, has, likewise, some rooms within it but they too are not in use now. These facts suggest the idea, that they are devoid of all opening for light and air, and the mephtic vapours which have accumulated within, render them unapproachable. In the temple at Buddha Gayā, there are two moderate-sized windows to give light to the upper chambers, but I could not perceive the trace of even a breathing hole in any of the Orissan steeples.

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**Plinth :** In plain temples, the plinth is, as already stated, generally wanting, and the body of the edifice rises from the surface of the ground with which the floor is flush. But in elaborate structures there is generally a basement or platform of some pretension, varying in height from two to five or six feet, and diversified by a variety of bands and mouldings, or broken in their outline by projecting pedestals of various shapes.

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Fig. 13 Section of an Orissan Temple

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**Pinnacle :** The pinnacle includes most of the elements of the Benares *Kalaśa*, but their relative proportions are entirely different. The square plate *rāmarekhā*, on the top of the steeple, is small in size, and of slight thickness, having more the appearance of the plinth of a pillar held very much within the flattened top of the steeple than of a massive covering for the head, projecting considerably beyond its area. It is, besides, invariably plain, and has none of the denticulations which give it its peculiar name. Above it, a narrow neck of low height supports the *amlaśilā*, which, instead of being of the small size and insignificant appearance common at Benares, assumes the proportions of a regular dome. It is invariably solid, compressed, and ribbed, having the appearance of a gigantic melon, the height being about half the horizontal diameter. In building it, eight stones are generally used, four above and four below; but in small edifices one or two stones suffice for its construction: sometimes a great many stones are used, as shown in the section above. For the support of its projecting edge, four *caryatides*, or lions-couchant, or ugly dwarfs, are commonly employed, and they face the four sides of the body of the temple.

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**Kalasa :** The dome is surmounted successively by the *morā*, and the *kāngni*, as at Benares, and thereupon is placed the *kalaśa*, or jar, but its shape is remarkable,—quite different from that of the ordinary Indian pitcher of the present day. After a careful examination of several scores of specimens at Bhuvaneśvara, Puri and the Behar district, I can compare it with nothing so close as a Grecian *amphora*. The body, the neck, and the ornamentation of this vessel, appear to be pretty near copies of European models.

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and yet its presence on edifices, which have nothing else that could bear the most distant resemblance to foreign archetypes, precludes the idea of the model of these jars having been imported from Greece or Italy. The intercourse which formerly existed between the nations of the East and the West, could easily account for the importation of *amphorae*, and other Grecian vessels to India; but it is impossible to suppose that sacerdotal bigotry would so far yield to aesthetic considerations, as to permit a foreign wine-cup to crown the spires of its holiest temples. I am disposed, therefore, to attribute it to an effort to improve upon the ordinary water jar of the period, resulting in an ornamented specimen of the ancient *ghaḍā*. A well-filled pitcher, on the top of a thatched roof is an important measure of precaution, which people of this country seldom forget, and that it should be reproduced in stone as an ornament among a people, the most conservative of conservatives, is by no means extraordinary; and that in its transit from earth to stone, it should be improved [32] and embellished is but natural, and a matter of course. In Orissa, the jar is never repeated, but in the North-Western Provinces, where the people carry on their heads two, three and sometimes four pots of different sizes, the *kalaśa* is repeated two or three times on their temples.

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The Orissan name for this temple is *devul*, Sanskrit *vimāna*. It occupies the place of the European *naos*, *cella*, *adytum*, *advnov*, or sanctuary, being the abode of the visible representative of the Godhead. It has an *edos* on the side opposite the entrance, on which the image or images are seated. In all well-ordered fanes this raised platform, or throne, is made of stone, and finished with great care; but in poor and more recent temples it is replaced by a wooden chair. In Śaivite temples, it is entirely wanting, and the image is placed in the centre of the floor.

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**Porch :** Allusion has already been made to the porch in its simplest form, consisting of two pilasters sustaining a projecting weather-moulding. The transitions from pilasters to detached pillars, and from a simple moulding to an architrave and cornice, appear to have taken place at an early date; for this arrangement is observable in some of the oldest and least pretending edifices. Occasionally, but rarely, the pillars were placed in a recess made for the purpose in the wall, and it gave to the front somewhat the appearance of what in Grecian temples is called *in antis e’n parastádi*.

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In the North-Western Provinces two additional columns were soon added, which, with a pyramidal roof, produced a detached pavilion, or kiosk, in front; and this has since been greatly improved, particularly in Jain temples, by multiplying the columns and extending the area of the building. But in Orissa the change did not sort with the massive character of the larger temples, nor suit the requirements of the priests, who, probably, thought the light admitted into the sanctuary through its single door too much for the mystic character of their rituals, and the generally unattractive appearance of the idols. A walled building was, therefore, preferred to an open, columnar, or arcaded one; and for the sake of variety, and to mark the distinction between the temple and its porch, its top was closed with a pyramidal roof instead of a steeple. The Orissan name for this structure is *jagamohan*, “the fascinator of the world”, for it is from this place that the public are allowed to behold the divinity within. It may be compared to the *prodromus* or *pronaos*, of ancient, and the vestibule of mediaeval European temples. According to Kāśyapa, it is the *antarāla* or ante-temple.¹¹ Its ground plan is generally, though not invariably, square, and its walls are diversified with the same kind of projections as those of the temple itself. At first sight it would appear to differ from the temple in having four doors instead of one; but as frequently, two of them, those on the flanks, are closed either by mullion bars, or lattice work, and the third is brought in contact with the entrance to the temple, there is virtually only one entrance to it.¹² But it differs from the temple in height, in the form of its roof, and in having, in structures of large dimensions, four pillars arranged in two rows, which divide its floor into a nave and two aisles, or make it a distyle hall. Its height is fully one-third less than that of the temple. The plinth is invariably of the same height, the walls to the cornice generally correspond, but the pyramidal roof is entirely different, and so are the decorations on the walls. The roof is a repetition of the cube of the body with the sides and top cut off to produce its peculiar shape. This is, however, not invariably the case : in two or three instances the sloping roof after being carried to some height is broken by a regular clear story with windows opening all round at short intervals to admit light. The truncated top of the pyramid, where the pyramidal form is adopted, is surmounted by a domical structure of which the most prominent members are the same as on the temple viz., the *amla* fruit, and the reversed lotus; but they are repeated, the lower globe very much compressed and the lotus elongated into an umbrella crown. The upper members remain untouched. The *kalaśa* is a repetition of what occurs on the temple.

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¹¹ Rām Rāz's *Architecture of the Hindus*, p. 49.

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¹² At Koṇārak, all the four entrances are left open and embellished with large figures of horses, lions and elephants. Some of the minor porches, such as that of Paraśurāmeśvara's temple at Bhuvaneśvara, have two or three doors on each side, and their ground-plans are oblong.

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The constructive peculiarity of the roof will be best understood by a reference to the annexed plates. On the outside it is formed of courses of receding stones, broken at intervals by projecting ledges so placed as to balance the materials, and throw the weight of the roof on the sustaining walls. These ledges are arranged into one, two, or three groups, according to the size of the building, each comprehending four tiers. Sometimes the ledges are wanting as shewn in the woodcut No. 19. The outer borders of the ledges, where they exist, are richly ornamented with floral bands, or groups of animals in low relief. The inner face, or ceiling, is built on the same principle, but it is not of a piece with the outer face. It is formed of three independent series of parallel projecting courses with the tops closed in by single slabs, or spanned by iron beams, and covered over by several flags of stone. Probably the ceilings were built first and the outer structure afterwards and independently of it, for the ceilings have dropped down in several ruined porches, leaving the outer shell entire. In small porches, where no pillars are used, triangular slabs placed in the corners, sufficed to support the pyramidal superstructure.

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[33] Originally, nothing further was needed to complete a temple, but in course of time two other buildings were added in a line with the porch. The first was called the *nāṭmandir* or "the dancing hall," Sanskrit : *maṇḍapa*,¹³ and in front of it, (2nd), the *bhogamandir* or "refectory" ; and all large establishments now include this four-fold arrangement.

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¹³ Rām Rāz writes *maṇṭapa*, but that is not Sanskrit.

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**Natmandir** : The *nāṭmandir*, as its name implies, is a festive hall, large, spacious, and open on all sides, corresponding with the *chaultry*, or "marriage hall" of Southern India, except that the sides are not arcaded, but provided with doors, three to four on each side. Its ground plan, unlike that of the temple and the porch, is oblong, and it is connected with the porch behind, and with the refectory in front. Its roof, like that of the porch, is supported on pillars, and constructed on exactly the same principle, but the peculiar projecting ledges and the pinnacle are wanting, and its slope is less. The walls are devoid of sculptures, and not quite so high as those of the porch. Woodcut No. 19 represents the roof of the dancing hall of the Great Tower at Bhuvaneśvara.

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**Bhogamandir** : The refectory is a square room having only two doors, one opening into the dancing hall, and the other in front. Its pyramidal roof generally, though not invariably, corresponds with that of the porch, and its walls are profusely ornamented with a variety of floral scrolls and mouldings. It is, however, lower than the dancing hall which on its part is lower than the porch, and is in every instance that I have noticed a subsequent addition, and not synchronous with the temple.

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**Enclosing Wall** : This fourfold building is generally surrounded by a high wall, enclosing a large area of ground which forms what was in Grecian temples called *ieron* or *temenos*, "the sacred enclosure," which included all the appurtenances of the sanctuary : sometimes a second wall was built round the first, producing two courtyards, an inner and an outer one. The walls, which may be likened to the *peri Bolos* or sacred fence of the Greeks, were invariably plain, both inside and outside in marked contrast to Buddhist railings which are most elaborately sculptured. At Bhuvaneśvara the wall is capped with a simple coping, sloped on the upper surface, and having a projecting drip to prevent the wet from running down the surface of the wall ; but at Puri and Koṇārak, they are ornamented with Saracenic battlements.

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Originally the enclosure contained nothing beyond the main temple and the necessary out-offices, kitchen, &c. ; but the sanctity which attaches to such establishments, induced people to avail themselves of every opportunity of dedicating temples erected within the sacred area, and the result is, that the courtyards, as now found, are filled with a large number of fanes of various sizes and diverse pretensions, so crowded together as seriously to mar the beauty of the main buildings.

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**Direction** : All the principal temples face the East, so that the image of the deity within may face the rising god of day, the natural visible emblem of the invisible Godhead. A similar feeling in Greece led, according to Vitruvius, to the entrance to the temples being turned towards the West, so that those who came to worship might behold the statues of the gods towards the East; but it has also resulted in all its principal temples on the Acropolis and those in Attica, Ionia and Sicily, as also those consecrated to the goddess Athéné—the Hellenic dawn, or Uṣā,—having an easterly direction, and it may fairly be asked if such an idea has had anything to do with the orientation of many Christian churches. It is worthy of remark that Burmese palaces are always so built as to face the East. The word *jhé* in Burmese means both east and front,¹⁴ and many of the chief Buddhist and Jain fanes also face the East; but the principle which guided their position is unknown. In the case of minor shrines of the Hindus, this rule has not been very strictly observed, and many fanes may be seen that have fronts towards the West, South, or North. They never, however, have departed from one of the cardinal points of the compass, which was, according to the *Śilpa-Śāstra*, invariably ascertained with a gnomon before a building was commenced. The mode of doing it, is thus described by Rām Rāz : ' “On a smooth level piece of ground is erected a gnomon,” which, according to some, should be sixteen *angulas* in height, and of the same diameter at the bottom; the whole should be shaped like the leaf of an opening bud, tapering gradually from the bottom to the top'. Around this a circle is drawn with a cord of twice the height of the gnomon, by fixing one end of it to its base, and carrying the other round it. Points are marked in the circumference where the shadow of the gnomon projects, both in the forenoon and afternoon, that is, at any given hour after sunrise, and at the same time before sunset; and between these points a right line is drawn so as to join them; the point marked by the morning shadow will show the East, and that marked by the evening shadow the West. Then from each of these two points, and with a radius equal to the distance between them, describe two more circles cutting each other, and resembling (in their points of intersection) the head and tail of a fish, between which draw a right line, which will point to the South and North. Again, from the southern and northern points, which touch the circumference of the inner circle respectively, and with the same radius, describe two more circles, and the points of intersection on the two other sides will indicate the East and West.¹⁵

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¹⁴ *Yule's Mission to Ava*, p. 97.

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¹⁵ *Architecture of the Hindus*, 19.

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**[34] Gateways** : The principal entrance to the temple is placed to the east, right in front of the temple. It is covered by a spacious square building, the *toraṇa* or *gopura*, with a pyramidal roof, having the figures of the nine Indian planets (*navagraha*) sculptured in more or less relief on the frieze under the weather-moulding. The structure, however, has neither the lofty storied character of the Tamulian *gopura*,¹⁶ which rises from five to fourteen stories, nor the majesty and massive solidity of the Egyptian *pylon*, or *propylon*, but holds a very subordinate place in the whole composition. For guards it has two lions, either seated, or rampant on crouching elephants, a form of grouping to which the Uriyās seem to have been very partial. At Koṇārak there are also horses and elephants for guards; but they are not common, nor do they at all approach the gigantic size of the human-headed winged bulls and lions of the Assyrian palaces. At Puri there are gateways of about the same size on all the four sides of the enclosure of the great temple; but originally such was not the case at Bhuvaneśvara, the two small doors on the north and the south of the Great Tower now visible, being manifestly subseqent additions: there is no opening in its western wall. The roof of the gateway externally is a counterpart of that of the porch on a small scale, but internally it is so arched as to look like the under surface of a hemispherical dome.

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¹⁶ Vide *passim* Fergusson's *History of Architecture*, II, 567.

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**Material—Laterite:** In a country so abounding in stones of various kinds as Orissa, it is not to be supposed that any other material would be employed in the construction of buildings designed for the habitation of the image of the ever-present God, and intended to last for eternity, and accordingly it appears that they were the only substance used, and not a trace of bricks is anywhere to be met with. Of stones, the most common is laterite, next sandstone, and, lastly *muṅgni*, or chlorite. For outerwalls, kitchens, porticos, and all structures of secondary importance the first is the best suited. It occurs almost everywhere in Orissa within a few feet under the soil, and in many places crops up to the surface. Around Bhuvaneśvara large tracts lie barren, or covered with stunted jungle, from the soil or mould having been washed away from its rocky substratum. In his note on this substance, Mr. W. T. Blanford says: "The form which generally appears at the surface (it being rarely that the lower kind is exposed by the denudation of the upper) consists mainly of round ferruginous nodules, about 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch india meter, in a matrix of dark reddish-brown clay, which is generally more or less sandy. The nodules have a coating of brown hydrated peroxide of iron, and, when broken, some are seen to be black inside; others appear to be formed of concretionary peroxide of iron;

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others, again, are evidently ferruginous pebbles of decomposed gneiss, or of sandstone, if the rock prevail in the neighbourhood. These little nodules are frequently scattered over the country by the denudation and distintegration of the deposit containing them. In places the substance is so soft that it may be cut, though with difficulty, with a spade; in other places it hardens into a firm rock, sometimes cohering only in the form of large blocks, the intermediate portion remaining loose and gravelly, but frequently forming a hard mass, which covers the surface for considerable areas. It is only at the surface that the rock becomes thoroughly hardened; the lower portion requires exposure to give it firmness and strength: when exposed it becomes cavernous, owing to the washing away of the softer portions, and apparently a chemical change takes place, whereby the iron becomes altered from the state of anhydrous peroxide (and perhaps also of magnetic oxide) into that of brown or hydrated peroxide. To this chemical change the coherence may perhaps partly be attributed; much, however, is doubtless due to the more thorough drying of clay by the heat of the sun."17 Dr. Oldham, commenting on the value of the laterite as a building material, observes: "Few rocks present greater advantages from its peculiar character; it is easy to cut and shape when first dug, and it becomes hard and tough after exposure to the air; while it seems to be very little acted on by the weather.

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Indeed in many of the sculptured stones of some of the oldest buildings, temples, &c., in the district, the chisel marks are as fresh and sharp as when first built. It is perhaps not so strong, nor so capable of resisting great pressure, or bearing great weights, as some of the sandstones, or the more compact kind of gneiss, but it certainly possesses amply sufficient strength for all ordinary purposes. It is largely used at the present time, but has also been employed from the earliest period from which the buildings and temples of the country, date. . . . . Another advantage it possesses over other rocks is the facility of transport, it being generally found in the low grounds, and often at no great distance from some of the many streams which traverse the vicinity. Slabs from four to five feet long are easily procurable of this rock."18 Exposure to water does not seem to affect its texture in any way, and it is, therefore, also largely used for the building of *ghāts* and retaining walls on the sides of tanks. Being however, a nodular conglomerate, it is full of cavities and soft interstices, and utterly unfit, not only for sculptures and fine work, but even for paving and other purposes, where a smooth even surface is required. D. Oldham alludes to "elaborate specimens of carving and ornament"19 made of this stone, but I have nowhere seen any. The simplest mouldings of bands and fillets are all that have come under my notice.

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[35] **Sandstone:** Sandstone is also abundant everywhere. The low range of hills which runs along the whole length of the province, dividing it into two parts, consists principally of this stone, and it is quarried and worked with ease. It is commonly of a grey colour and coarse grain; but a finer variety of an ocherous tint varying in shade from a light fawn to dark brick-red is met with at Aṭgarh in the Tributary Mehals, and in a few other places, and is largely used for outer facings of temples, and for sculptures. This variety is of small grain, homogeneous texture and great firmness, admitting of very delicate carving without breaking or chipping. As it had, however, to be brought from a great distance, the builders generally tried to economise its use, and to replace it by the grey kind whenever it was practicable without injury to the appearance of their work.

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**Chlorite:** The *muṅgni* is a kind of serpentine, or chlorite. It is of a dark slaty colour, and fine composition, susceptible of a high degree of polish, and when polished, it assumes, like slate, a black colour. In the present day it is largely employed in the manufacture of plates, basins, and other domestic utensils. "The rock yields a beautiful compact and very tough material, though soft and easy to work. It is admirably suited for fine carvings, as may be well seen in some of the beautifully sculptured doorways of the Black Pagoda, which are carved from this variety of rock. Blocks of almost any size can be obtained, the only impediment being the difficulty of transport from the high hills on which it occurs." It is, however, not met with in Cuttack, and the distance from the Nilgiri Hills, in Balasore, where it is quarried, to Bhuvaneśvara and Puri, was so great that its use had to be confined to statuary and finer kinds of sculptures, which were not intended to be much exposed to sun and rain. For facing the suffits and jambs of the entrance to temples, for the paving of the cells, as also for thrones of the sacred images, it was also largely employed ; in short, it supplied the place of marble which was not accessible to the Uriyās, and was, and is to this day, held in high estimation.

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¹⁷ *Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India*, I, p. 281.

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¹⁸ *Ibid*, 276.

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¹⁹ *Loc. cit.*

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**Granite :** In descriptions of Orissan antiquities, granite is frequently mentioned by European writers, but I have not seen it employed for building purposes either at Puri or at Bhuvaneśvara. According to Dr. Oldham, than whom few can speak with more authority on questions of Indian Geology, "throughout the countıy, south of the Mahānadī, dykes of all kinds are rare, trap is entirely wanting, and granitic veins are seldom seen." It is probable therefore that, as in the infancy of geological science at the end of the last and the beginning of this century all hard grey-looking stones were mistaken for granite, non-professional men in Orissa, as elsewhere, frequently took the one for the other. Between thirty and forty years ago the Aśoka pillars were described by more than one writer as made of granite, but it is now well-known that they are all formed of sandstone. In the same way Bishop Heber called several structures in Agra and Delhi as constructed of granite, which have since turned out to be sandstone or marble. If true granite, however, is wanting, gneiss is common enough, if not abundant, and a granitiferous variety is frequently employed for statuary, particularly on the Ālti and the Nālti Hills : some of the statues of the Black Pagoda are also said to be made of this material ; but the bulk of them are of sandstone.

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**Style of Building :** As in design, so in the art of building, Uriyā architects display a sad want of variety. If their temples are all of one plan, they are built in almost the same order everywhere. Possibly at an early stage of their progress, they did try other modes of arranging their materials, but by the middle of the seventh century, they seem to have discovered what appeared to them the cheapest, and at the same time the most convenient, style of masonry, and continued ever after to practise it without any variation. This was to arrange courses of oblong ashlars of the same height, which were held together by their weight, by their perfect adjustment, and by the frequent intervention of bonders long enough to extend to a considerable distance into, or entirely through, the wall. All the courses, however, were not of the same thickness, nor the stones always of the same size,²² and the result was a kind of work which in reference to Grecian buildings is denominated the *pseudoisodomum*. This plan, however, was not followed in the construction of walls of extraordinary thickness. It would have occasioned a great waste of labour and material to have filled up piers seven to ten feet thick with carefully dressed blocks of the same size throughout, and a different style was therefore deemed necessary. This was to build irregular horizontal courses with partially worked stones of various sizes and to face them on both sides with isodomic walls of well-dressed flags. Occasionally unhewn masses were rudely piled together with no further adjustment than the insertion of small blocks in the interstices, in the true cyclopean style, but their sides were always faced with cut stones of a [36] superior quality. It should be added, however, that I have not had many opportunities of examining masonry work of great thickness in a dilapidated state, to be able to say with certainty whether the cyclopean, or the irregular horizontal style was the most prevalent. The latter was met with in about half a dozen places, and the former only twice : they were in every instance covered with a layer of finely dressed stones, except of course in the foundations where such facings would have been thrown away.

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²⁰ Oldham, in the *Memoirs* of the Geological Survey. I, p. 278.

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²¹ Ibid., I. p. 264.

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²² Sanskrit works on architecture insist on the ashlars being of uniform size, and the *Agni Purāṇa* recommends squares of one cubit with a depth of 8 fingers as the most appropriate, bricks being of half that size ; but the rule seems never to have been respected :

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**Mortar :** Mortar seems never to have been used ; the massiveness of the blocks, and the accuracy with which they were cut and adjusted, rendered it unnecessary. Wooden wedges were also not used, or, if used, they are not now traceable. In the joining, however, of long projecting cornices and roof-stones, iron clamps were frequently employed. At Koṇārak I also noticed lead in the fissures and holes in the remains of cornices ; but neither copper nor brass.²³ The iron has everywhere rusted and swollen, and produced serious cracks in the stones in which they are embedded, causing thereby more injury to the temples, than time and climate have done in course of centuries. The Uriyā builders of old appear to have been, to some extent at least, aware of this source of danger, for iron clamps occur less frequently in the ancient temples of Bhuvanes'vara than in the more modern structures of Puri and Koṇārak.

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