The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c8.68

v1.c8.68

**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.