The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.s1.107

v2.c17.s1.107

[96] **Sari Deul**—On the north of the Great Tower between the main road, Baḍāḍaṇḍ, and the Vindusāgara tank there are also several temples, but neither so dilapidated nor so neglected. They are connected with private dwellings or maths, and regularly receive visits from the faithful; but only one of them is worthy of special note. It is called Sāri Deül by the people, but that cannot be its original name. Like the Rājārānī Deül and the Vaitāl Deül, it is obviously a nickname, which has, by long usage, cast into oblivion the original name. As the local legends were written long before the nickname got into currency, and the original name is not now known, it has not been possible for me to identify the monument with any of the temples noticed in the legends; but from the character, make, and ornamentation of the temple I have every reason to believe that it belongs to the same age to which the Someśvara and the Vaitāl Deül owe their origin. As one of the minor fanes it is limited to the temple proper and the porch; but its walls are uncommonly thick, and its ornamentation the most florid. The base of the temple is 26 feet square, and the chamber within 12 x 11 feet. The Mohan, at the base, measures 36 feet, but the area within is, in its broadest part, only 12 feet (see plate XLVIII). The height of the temple is 63 feet. The mouldings, finials and bases are of the usual type, and several specimens of them have been shown in Vol. I, (plates X, 21, 22; XIV, 38*a*, 38*b*; XVII, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53). The figure ornaments are also of the usual character, but less vigorous in conception, and unfinished in execution. There is, however, one peculiarity in the ornamentation of this mounment, which is characteristic; it is the employment of a variety of vases for finials and tops of piers and buttresses. They are of different shapes and sizes, but all chaste and beautiful; some of them recall to mind the shapes of Grecian and Roman vases, and the idea suggests itself that the architect had seen foreign models before he designed them; nor was it impossible for him to obtain such models, as we know from Arrian's *Periplus of the Erythrian Sea*, that foreign intercourse obtained from many centuries before the date of the temple. The ornamentation is, however, throughout different and the shapes of the vases are not so peculiar as to be impossible of production without copying.