The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.147

v2.c17.147

**Ananta Vasudeva** :—About a hundred and fifty yards to the north of the last, immediately in front of the central ghāt of the Vindusāgara tank, there is a large and magnificent temple with its threefold appurtenance of an appropriate porch, a dancing hall, and a refectory. The courtyard is of the same style, though not of the same size as that of the Great Tower. It is paved throughout with rough flags of sandstone and chlorite, and has at the four corners four small temples, two of which are in a dilapidated condition. The courtyard measures 181 feet by 117 feet, and has a projection in front, 96 feet long and 25 broad, with a propyllon in the centre, opening towards the west. The walls of the courtyard are of laterite, 4 feet thick and 9 feet high. The ground-plan of the temple is shown in plate XLIX. The base [84] of the temple is a square of 23 feet broken by three sets of projections, the interior being a square of 10 feet 9 inches raised on a plinth 5 feet high. The total height of the temple is 60 feet to the *kalasa*. The body of the temple is formed of two tiers of niches ranged on a central broad band, and three buttress-like projections on each side of it. These projections are continued on the shaft, but there, instead of having niches, they are modelled into the form of each a string of model temples crossed by narrow horizontal bands. The porch is square of 33 feet outside measurement, the interior being 19 feet. The Dancing Hall is externally 29 feet by 24, and in the inside 17-4 by 16-9, and the Refectory 22 by 19 feet on the outside, and 19 x 12-6 inside. The walls of the Porch and the Dancing Halls are of the same pattern as that of the Dancing Hall of the Great Tower, and their roofs are pyramidal like that of the porch of the Great Temple. The roofs are supported on thick iron beams stretching from wall to wall. The pediments on the porch are particularly elaborate and florid. The temple has an only door opening into the porch. The porch has a door on each side, and opens by a third into the Dancing Hall, which has three doors on each side, and a seventh opening into the Refectory, which, besides the one leading to the Dancing Hall, has three others, one on each side. The cellar of the temple is excessively dark even at midday, and the solitary oil lamp, which is always kept burning, serves only to make the intolerable darkness visible and more oppressive.