The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c8.13

v1.c8.13

**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.