The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.91

v2.c16.91

**Vaiknutha, Patalapura and Jomapura Caves :**—Further north-west, a little above the level of the surrounding country, we come to a two-storeyed range designed somewhat in the style of the Queen’s Palace, but on a smaller scale. (Plate I. G). The storeys are so arranged, as not to rest directly one above the other, but the upper recedes so as to [15] leave the top of the lower one open to form a terrace. The upper storey is called Vaikuṇṭhapura, and the lower, Pātālapura. The lower storey comprises a suite of three rooms, two on a line facing the west, and one on the south, projecting considerably beyond the line of the former, the whole protected by a verandah in front. The eastern rooms are of a trapezoid shape, the extreme length before and behind differing by about 1 foot, the breadth being 7 feet. Each room has two doors opening into the verandah. The southern room is also a trapezium 10 feet in length on the western side, and 11 ft. 6″ on the southern, the breadth being, as before, 7 feet. It opens into the verandah by a single door. The door-ways are framed with side pilasters and semicircular arched bands on the top as in the Queen’s Palace, but without any intervening frieze. The two ends of the verandah project forward to the extent of about 5 feet. Its pillars are now very much decayed, and mis-shapen, but originally they were of the Queen’s Palace type, square above and below, and octagonal in the centre. The architrave once had a deep frieze formed of basso-rilievo figures of men and animals, but they have been long since so destroyed, defaced and weather-worn that nothing but faint traces of the figures are now visible. Above this frieze, over a slightly projecting cornice, there is a Buddhist four-barred rail along the whole length, forming a protecting fence for the verandah above ; but it has been very much defaced by the ravages of time.