The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c9.37

v1.c9.37

**Cornice:** The temples of Orissa have nothing like a projecting cornice, designed to throw off the rain water from the walls, and the transition from the body to the steeple takes place either imperceptibly, or is marked by one or more flat band,—rarely, and only in later structures, by a narrow neck. In highly ornamented temples, the capitals of the pilasters, terminating in a series of rings, mark the commencement of the steeple. The case is different with porches, dancing halls, refectories, and gateways: they have a deep cornice formed of oblong slabs projecting from 1½ to 3 or 4 feet. These stones are invariably placed horizontally, flat on the walls, and so built over as to keep them in their position without the aid of consoles, brackets, or other support of any kind. Indeed, in the whole range of Orissan porches there is not a single instance where any attempt has been made to strengthen the cornice by the gradual projection of the walls, or by a series of horizontal mouldings, or by the insertion of blocks at short intervals. In this respect the Orissan cornice of the Bhuvaneśvara era bears no relation to the Assyrian, Egyptian or Grecian cornices, which all rest on projections of some kind or other. At Benares this cornice of a single-stone projection is common, but there the stones are generally placed in a sloping position; but as the roof slopes inward into the form of a pyramid from the inner edge of the cornice, the structure appears weak and ungainly. Such is, however, not the case with the cornices of Bhuvaneśvara. There, aloft at a great height, they do not from below seem weak or ill-adapted. Nevertheless some of the cornice-stones of the porch of the Great Tower at Bhuvaneśvara, which project over 4 feet, and most of those of the Puri porch, though of considerable thickness, were apparently unequal to bear the weight placed over them, or, as the Pāṇḍās maintain, were knocked down by lightning and when they had to be replaced, about two cenutries ago, the builders found it impossible to keep the new slabs in their places without the aid of iron stays. These latter have since been covered over with plaster, and moulded into the form of caryatides, ugly and obscene, not at all in keeping with the general character of the ordonnance. Projection under three feet have nowhere yielded to the superstructure.