The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.s1.85

v2.c17.s1.85

This story is of course generally believed by the faithful to be true, but there are certain facts connected with the temple which induce me to think that in it we have an instance of converting a Buddhist monument to Hindu usage. The temple is built of basalt, which, as I have said before, indicates greater antiquity than red sandstone. The style of building is also indicative of an older date than that of the Great Temple. The general absence of sculptured ornaments, and the use of stucco on decayed old mouldings are also peculiar to it. The piers have been repaired several times with stucco, and, to prevent the stones from exfoliating, the whole structure has been plastered over with lime-cement. These mouldings and plastering are now very much decayed, and the temple looks weather-worn and crumbling. But its most remarkable peculiarity is that it is apparently two-storeyed, the terrace round the temple forming the first storey, and the temple itself the second. The separate entrances of these two storeys are distinctly shown in the photograph (plate XLIV). The terrace or basement measures 48-4 by 47-8, the height being 11 feet. The temple proper stands on this, and at one time was over 50 feet, but its top is broken, the Kalasa and the Amlaśīlā are gone, and only about 40 feet of the height now remains *in situ*. The body of the temple is a square of 31 feet 4 inches with a small porch 11 feet broad, and 4 feet deep. The doorway is 7-9 by 3-6. The sides of the temple have niches, each holding an alto-relievo of the Devī, 3 feet high. The interior of the temple is 13-10 square. The floor is about 3 feet above the level of the surrounding country, and from its centre rises a *liṅgam* of sandstone 9 feet 3 inches long, and 12 feet 8 inches in girth, which gives it a diameter of over 4 feet. Its cylindrical portion is perfect, round and polished, but the top is broken, showing that it is a fragment of a huge monolithic column. The second storey is accessible from the roof of the terrace, and the centre of its floor is pierced, or, more correctly speaking, the floor is so arranged as to form a gallery round the *liṅgam* which rises above its level. Close by the *liṅgam*, there is a flight of stone steps, 8 feet high, and the officiating priest daily ascends it to reach the top of the *liṅgam*, and thence pours water and offers flowers and rice as the Śāstras require, for its adoration. Pilgrims by hundreds go round the gallery, and therefrom pay their adoration to the lord of the god of light. It is impossible to resist the conclusion that the *liṅgam* is a portion of an Aśoka lāṭ to which it bears a close resemblance; that it had stood there an honored monument of that great emperor; that when the place passed from the Buddhists to the Hindus, the column was somehow broken; and that the latter have since built over the lower part of the column a temple to give it shelter, and named it a *liṅgam*. It was the policy of the Brahmins not ruthlessly to sweep away the monuments of their rivals, and thereby offend the masses who were more or less attached to them, but to convert them, whenever possible, to objects of Hindu faith; and the shaft of the column could not be better [90] and more easily utilized than by naming it a *liṅgam*. This conversion must have taken place in the reign of Yayāti, or that of his immediate successor, and the temple must therefore belong to the close of the 5th, or the beginning of the 6th, century. Its design and details preclude the possibility of its being of a later age.