The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.91

v2.c17.91

The cornice is flat, and projects 4 feet. The roof is pyramidal like that of the Bhoga Maṇḍapa, and formed of receding ledges. It is divided into two tiers by a narrow perpendicular neck. The lower tier has nine ledges, and the upper one six. The edges of these ledges are elaborately carved, and set off at short intervals by lancet-headed finials. The subjects on the edges include processions of horses, elephants, camels, cattle, and troops of infantry and cavalry. Two of these processions have been figured in the first volume of this work (Plate XIII), and they show the outlines of these figures to be bold, and the execution remarkably good. The projections of the ledges correspond with those of the ground plan, but without the recesses shown there. The central projection of each tier has a pediment of the usual Orissan pattern (see Vol. I, plate XXXIII) flanked by model temples, and crowned with the statue of a lion seated on its hind quarters. The roof above the upper tier is flat, and from the centre of it rises a cylindrical neck supporting the pinnacle, which is a repetition of what occurs on the Bhoga Maṇḍapa except in the sloping ribbed form under the Amlaśilā. On the Bhoga Maṇḍapa this from is single, whereas on the Mohan it is doubled (See Plate XXX). Though the walls are thick enough to support any amount of weight that might be put on it, the corbelling of the roof being too rapid, or not sufficiently gradual, to throw the whole weight of the roof on the walls, a great deal of its middle portion needed additional support, and this has been provided by four massive square pillars, dividing the area of the room into a nave and two side aisles. The pillars are 30 feet high, perfectly plain, and the space between the front wall on the east, and the two foremost pillars have been partitioned by flying walls, leaving a passage from the door to the nave, and forming two side rooms.