The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c8.4

v1.c8.4

**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.