The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.80

v2.c17.80

Along the inner side of the surrounding walls there is raised berm twenty feet high. It originally served the means of enabling the people to defend the temple-enclosure from outside attack; but latterly, it would seem, that idea was given up, and the inner edge of the terrace was protected by a revetment, and measures were taken to build a range of rooms all round. This plan, however, was never carried out, except on the north-east corner where a long range of rooms have been erected to serve as a kitchen. Some of the rooms are large, and divided into a nave and two aisles, by two ranges of pillars having bracket capitals. The capitals are formed of two blocks placed one over the other as shown in the margin (Woodcut No. 2), and not crucially as is so common in Buddhist buildings. In one of the aisles there is a very well-executed figure of Nṛsiṁha, done in black chlorite. The area of the berm is left unpaved, but that of the courtyard below it is paved with flags of granite.