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The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c18: Chapter IV. Konarak

The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c18

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English

Contents

Chapter IV. Konarak

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Koṇārak---its situation and present condition---Hindu legendary account---Story of Sāmba---Sun as the healer of leprosy---Merits of Koṇārak---Buddhist origin of the place---Muhammadan account--The Great Temple---its Courtyard, its Hall of Offerings, its Tower, its Audience Chamber, its Ornaments, its Date. Minor temples. Yājapur. Daśāśvamedha Ghāṭ. Cenotaph of Syad Bokhārī. Modern temples. Monolith. Śāntamādhava. Place at Narapadda. Kopārī. Assia Hills. Alti. Udayagiri. Nālti. Mahāvināyaka Hill. Chatiā Hill. Kapilāsa. Cuttack.

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[ 145 ] The four most important places of pilgrimage in the province of Orissa are, according to the *Kapila Saṁhitā*, Cakra Kṣetra or Bhuvaneśvara ; Śaṅkha Kṣetra or Puri ; Padma Kṣetra or Koṇārak and Gadā Kṣetra or Yājapur. Two others are also named as places of great sanctity ; viz., Śambhu Kṣetra or Kapilās Hill and Vināyaka Kṣetra or Darpaṇa ; but they are of later date and devoid of all antiquarian interest. Of the four principal places, the first two are held in the highest estimation and most extensively visited by pilgrims. Representing the two leading gods of the modern Hindus, Śiva and Viṣṇu, they claim the most exalted sanctity and have prominent mention made of them in most Sanskrit works on pilgrimage. They are likewise highly interesting to the antiquarian, as they contain some of the most magnificent architectural remains to be met with in India. The other two have lost all importance in the eyes of the faithful. Koṇārak is totally deserted and Yājapur, though lying on the highway to Cuttack and serving as a halting-place for pilgrims in their way to Puri, is rarely resorted to as a place of pilgrimage. The former, however, contains the ruins of perhaps the largest and most beautiful temple which was ever erected by the northern Hindus, and as such is worthy of the attention of the archæologist.

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**Konarak---its sitution and present condition.** Koṇārak is situated at a distance of 19 miles to the north-east of Puri, and at about the northern end of the sandy shore which stretches form the Cilkā Lake to the mouth of the Prācī River. The most prominent place in it is the Black Pagoda and its position is Latitude 19 *d.* 53 *m.* 32 *s.* N., and Longitude 86 *d.* 8 *m.* 31 *s.* E. Its current name is the vernacularised form of two Sanskrit words implying ‘the corner of the sun’ or ‘the corner of Orissa dedicated to the sun’ : *koṇa* ‘corner’ and *arka* ‘the sun’ : koṇārka¹. In Sanskrit works this name, however, is never used ; its place being supplied by *Padma Kṣetra*, ‘the sacred place of Viṣṇu’s lotus’, or *Arka Kṣetra*, ‘the sanctuary of the sun’. In the *Sāmba Purāṇa* these names are replaced by *Maitra-vana*, the forest of Mitra, or the ‘Friendly Forest’. It is a small village, occupied principally by fishermen and other low-caste people and covered by large topes which form pleasant oases in the midst of a sandy plain. Milk and eggs are the only articles which the traveller can readily get at this place. The men are agriculturists and, to judge from their appearance, by no means living in a prosperous condition. From a few mounds of brick and rubbish to be seen here and there it would seem, however, that at one time the place was the site of a town of some importance. The fact of its having been selected as the locale of the largest temple in Orissa would also support the inference.

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¹ *Koṇārak, Hunter ; Kanaruc, Furgusson ; Konarak, Stirling.

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**Story of Samba.** The *Kapila Saṃhitā* devotes to this place barely two pages and they filled with an abstract of an ancient legend which occurs at length only in the *Sāmba Purāṇa*. References to this legend are to be met with in some medieval works on pilgrimages, but nowhere in any details. According to the *Sāmba Purāṇa*, Sāmba, the son of Kṛṣṇa by Jāmbavatī, was the handsomest youth of his race and very proud and wayward withal. In the hey-day of his youth and beauty he showed very little respect for age and wisdom and was foremost in every wicked play. While every other member of the Yādava race, including Kṛṣṇa, the head of the tribe, and his aged sire Vasudeva, evinced the most profound veneration for Nārada, the great sage of the time, he could only ridicule and mimic him. The sage, who loved mischief quite as much as the youth and was by nature irascible, could not brook his discourteous conduct and failing to check the youth by gentle means, adopted a highly reprehensible and unsaintly scheme to punish him. On one occasion going up to Kṛṣṇa, the sage insinuated that Sāmba was more familiar with the 1,600 wives of Kṛṣṇa than was becoming and that his extraordinary personal charms were dangerous to the purity of the ladies. Kṛṣṇa, however, scouted the idea and told the saint that he was sadly mistaken. ‘How is it possible’, said he, ‘that one so young, so beautiful and so good as Sāmba could behave improperly towards his own step-mothers?’ ‘You may not believe it now’, returned the sage, ‘but I shall have occasion to call your attention to it again’. A short time after, when Kṛṣṇa had [**146**] gone on an excursion to the Raivataka hill, Nārada called on Sāmba and told him forthwith to repair to Raivataka, where his father wished to see him. Sāmba obeyed the instruction and on the hill found his step-mothers excessively flushed with wine and indulging in throwing water upon each other in a tank. The ladies saw him and were very much smitten by his beauty. Nārada had followed him very closely and, going up to Kṛṣṇa, called his attention to the presence of Sāmba where the ladies in dishabille were engaged in bathing. Kṛṣṇa was greatly incensed and cursed the youth to be afflicted by leprosy, which would totally destroy his personal charms. Sāmba proved that he was innocent; but the curse, once pronounced, could not be withdrawn and he had, by the advice of Nārada, to retire to the Maitra Forest and there abide for twelve years to cure his foul disease. The *Kapila Saṃhitā* does not refer to Nārada and directly charges the youth with jilting with his step-mothers and sends him to the forest by order of his father; but as its account is avowedly an abstract, the omission may be due solely to a desire for condensation.

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Arrived at the forest on the banks of the Candrabhāgā river, Sāmba commenced the most rigorous penance. ‘With his mental faculties all under control and the external organs entirely overcome, living on air only, or without food, he devoted himself to the meditation of Sūrya. He worshipped the divinity, he bepraised him, he sang hymns to his glory, and frequently called out “O Sūrya, O Sūrya”. “Salutation be to the author of the day, Salutation to the author of light. Redeem this slave rolling on the ground, O thou all-mercifull”

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—was the *mantra* which he recited and, while reciting it, frequently fell prostrate on the earth'. The sun was pleased with the devotion, appeared to the youth in a dream and recommended him to repeat with unswerving faith the *mantra* of twenty-one epithets². This was accordingly done for a period of twelve years, when the sun appeared before him in *propria persona* to offer him a blessing. 'I am greatly pleased with thee, gentle youth, for thy penance', said he, 'ask whatever blessing thou wishest'. Sāmba replied, 'If you are pleased with me, O Lord, let this be the blessing, that I may always be devoted to thee, the eternal god'. The sun : 'I am the more pleased with this devotion. It shall be so and you should have another blessing for your faith'. Sāmba thus sought the blessing from the auspicious god, the river of blessings : 'Let thy mercy rinse me from the foul disease which affects me'. 'So shall it be', returned the sun and immediately cured him and Sāmba regained his pristine beauty. The sun continued, 'Listen, Sāmba, to what I, pleased with thee, say unto thee : whoever from this day will on earth establish sanctuaries in my name will be translated to the eternal region'.

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² Kapila Saṃhitā, Ch. 6.

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Sāmba resolved to do as he was directed. On the following morning, when bathing in the stream of the Candrabhāgā, Sāmba found a stone image in the bed of the river. It was the same which Viśvakarmā had thrown there in a former age and which had been carved out of a portion of the sun's body. It is said that Sūrya had married Samjñā, a daughter of Viśvakarmā ; but the young lady, disgusted with his fierceness and roughness, deserted him and hid herself in the Śveta Dvīpa. Sūrya thereupon consulted Brahmā, and by the advice of that divinity, got himself pared down and smoothed by Viśvakarmā, who put him on his lathe and pared off an eighth of his body by trimming every part except the feet. Having thus improved his appearance, Sūrya regained his truant wife. Viśvakarmā, unwilling to throw away the parings, fashioned them into various objects, such as the discus of Viṣṇu, the trident of Śiva, the club of Kuvera, the lance of Kārtikeya, and devoted a good portion to an image of the divinity. This last was by some accident thrown into the Candrabhāgā, and Sāmba, having got hold of this precious relic, set it up in an appropriate temple, and, by the advice of the divinity, procured certain Śākadvīpa Brahmins, whose profession was medicine, to serve as officiating priests. The image has remained there ever since.

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**[147] Sun as the healer of diseases.** The most remarkable fact noticeable in this story is the recognition of the sun as the healer of diseases. In the dawn of ancient Indian mythology the sun occupied the most prominent place in a quite different capacity. As the source of light, heat and life, it could not but produce a most vivid impression on the minds of those who first attempted to rise above the earth in search of a first cause of the diverse phenomena of creation and destruction which surrounded them. Its position, its majesty, its beneficence, alike recommended it to be the most adorable of objects. It was too far removed from the reach of human touch to be called matter ; it was the most gorgeous and majestic object on which the human eye could rest ; and it was perfectly unconnected with everything that could do any harm to man. And nothing in human conception could, in primitive times, be more fitly associated with the Divinity than the bright god of day. Its earliest epithet was Prajâpati, the lord of the animated creation, and innumerable were the hymns which the early Aryans addressed to it to bespeak its favour. Air, water and fire were but its manifestations and abided in it. In course of time, however, it lost this proud preeminence and took the secodary position of the visible emblem of the invisible Godhead. The sacred Gāyatri of the Brahmins recognised it in this capacity ; it invoked not the sun, but the Divine Spirit which vivified it. But the sun did not cease to be a god. Instead of being the God, it became one of the gods,—it became Viṣṇu, the ‘All-Pervader’. Other ehanges followed and these have been already summarised in a preceding part of this work (*ante* I, pp. [157] f). The last capacity in which we find the sun in the Śāstras is that of curing diseases, especially leprosy, and in this character it appears in the few temples still extant in honour of it.

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When this last transition took place is not known, but from two verses quoted in the *Kāvya Prakāśa* of Mammaṭha Bhaṭṭa, which dates from the 9th century, it would seem that the idea of the sun being the divinity over diseases must be considerably older. Mayūra Bhaṭṭa lived long before the date of the *Kāvya Prakāśa*, and he, having composed a century of verses in praise of Sūrya, is said to have cured himself of leprosy. Goyicandra, in his commentary on the *Saṃkṣiptasāra*, says that cures from diseases result from the grace of Sūrya ; and other authorities may be easily multiplied. According to the Purāṇas, the sun had, by Saṃjñā, the twin Aśvinikumāras, who were the physicians of the gods.

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Merits of Konarak

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But whatever the age when the change took place, Koṇārak has been noted from a long period as a holy one and especially beneficial to those who are afflicted with leprosy. The *Kapila Saṃhitā* is particularly eloquent in its praise. It says : ‘The forest called Maitreya was produced by the penances of the sage Maitreya. A person going thereto immediately cures himself of the frightful disease. Those who wish to dwell there without passion and free from sin have their desires fulfilled by the lord of day. Those who give up their life in the delightful forest of Maitreya, casting aside all their sins, repair to the region of light. Those who devoutly behold the image of the sun on a Sunday in the sacred abode of Ravi, and those who die in the Maitreya forest, attaining immortality and freedom from all subsequent births, repair to the region of the Devas and enjoy eternal felicity with the sun. Whoever worships Bhāskara there with ardent faith immediately frees himself from all sins and obtains whatever he wishes. There exists the holy pool named Maṅgala which bestows desirable rewards to gods. A person bathing in it on a Tuesday for certain obtains prosperity. There also exists the sacred pool Sālmalibhāṇḍa, the purifier of the three regions, the remover of all sins, the pure, the adored of Siddhas and Gandharvas, surrounded by many saints and the giver of salvation to all. Bathing therein men attain the light of the sun. Bathing in the Sālmalibhāṇḍa and then beholding the lord of shadows, a person, destroying his sins, repairs to the region of the sun. There is not, verily there is not a river on earth equal to the Sūryagaṅgā. Bathing in the sea before the place a person purifies himself from all sins. The lord of waters, the sea, is the noblest of all sacred waters and in the waves of the lord of rivers there exists the sacred Rāmeśvara which Rāma worshipped for the good of created beings ; and those good men who worship that Rāmeśvara with due faith, obtain desirable rewards from Rāmacandra himself. Whoever worships Maheśvara there with aromatics, flowers and edibles, goes to the region of Śiva in a celestial car. Those who bathe in due form in the waters of the Candrabhāgā, attain a body resplendent as that of the moon, and ultimately translate themselves to the mansion of Indra. There exists an all-granting tree named Arkavaṭa, adorned by numerous birds and at its foot dwell many saints, and whoever goes to this salvation-giving banian tree, becomes for certain indestructible. For the good of animated beings Sūrya himself has become that tree and those who recite the excellent *mantra* of Sūrya under its shade in three fortnights attain perfection. On the earth this Arkavaṭa is the same with the Nandana tree of heaven and I verily say unto thee hereby dwell [148] Siddhas. Those who there reflect on Viṣṇu obtain the favour of Viṣṇu. Whoever dwells under that tree is doubtless a Siddha. Those who worship the maker of day on the day of Vijayā-saptamī become successful everywhere and free from sin. Those who devoutly behold the Car Festival in the Maitreya forest, behold the real body of the sun’.

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**Buddhist origin of the place.** The reference to the Car Festival above made is of interest. It has been already shown (*ante*, pp. [135] f) that the festival owes its origin to Buddhism and its presence here suggests the idea that in it we have the survival of a Buddhist rite. The place must have been a flourishing town in the time of the Buddhists, though perhaps not so important at Bhuvaneśvara or Puri, and even as the two latter were appropriated by the Hindus, so was the former; and Śiva and Viṣṇu having been provided for, Sūrya came in for the third place. The five leading forms of modern Hinduism, including those of the Śaivas, the Vaiṣṇavas, the Sauras, the Śāktas and the Gāṇapatyas, had already long since obtained good currency in the 5th and the 6th centuries, and at the revival of Hinduism in Orissa about that time it is but natural to suppose that each sect should select one of the principal Buddhist seats of the province for its respective system of religion. Accordingly we find the Śaivas at Bhuvaneśvara, the Vaiṣṇavas at Puri, and the Śāktas at Yājapur, all unquestionable Buddhist places, still possessing vestiges of former Buddhist domination; and Koṇārak and Darpaṇa, the places for Sūrya and Gaṇeśa, may be fairly supposed to have been Buddhist. The evidence available is, certainly, exceedingly meagre and unsatisfactory; but without the assumption of previous sanctity and celebrity, it becomes difficult to account for the selection of a sea-beach for the dedication of so costly and magnificent a temple as the Black Pagoda.

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**Muhammadan account.** During the ascendancy of the Muhammadans, the place was still of considerable importance, and the Pathans were not above claming it as their own and attributing at least a part of its sanctity to a saint of their sect. This is evidenced by a story cited by Abul Fazl in the *Ain-i-Akbari*. It is there said—‘Many pretend that at this place is the tomb of Kabir Mowelhid and to this day they relate many stories of his sayings and doings. He was revered both by Muhammadans and Hindus on account of his wisdom and exemplary virtue. When he died, the Brahmins wanted to carry his body to be burnt and the Muhammadans insisted on burying it; but when they lifted up the sheet from the bier, the corpse could not be found’³.

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³ Gladwin’s Tr., ii, 15f.

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‘Of the Great Temple at the place, Abul Fazl gives the following account: ‘Near to Jaganaut is the temple of the sun, in the erecting of which was expended the whole revenue of Orissa for twelve years. No one can behold this immense edifice without being struck with amazement. The wall which surrounds the whole is one hundred and fifty cubits high and nineteen cubic thick. There are three entrances to it. At the eastern gate are two very fine figures of elephants each with a man up his trunk. To the west are two surprising figures of horsemen, completely armed; and over the northern gate are carved two tigers, who having killed two elephants, are sitting upon them. In the front of the gate is a pillar of black stone,⁴ of an octagonal form, fifty cubits high. There are nine flights of steps; after ascending which you come into an extensive enclosure, where you discover a large dome, constrcted of stone, upon which are carved the sun and stars, and round them is a border, where are represented a variety of human figures expressing the different passions of the mind; some kneeling, others prostrated with their faces upon the earth; together with minstrels, and a number of strange and wonderful animals, such as never existed but in imagination. This is said to be a work of seven hundred and thirty years’ antiquity. Rajah Nursing Deo finished this building, thereby erecting for himself a lasting monument of fame. There are twenty-eight other temples belonging to this pagoda, six before the northern gate and twenty-two without the enclosure; and they are all reported to have performed miracles’⁵.

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⁴ Now erected before the Puri Temple.

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⁵ Gladwin's Tr., ii, 15.

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**[149]** This description was apparently obtained from a correspondent who was by no means an accurate observer and its details are obviously faulty. It shows, however, that the place was at the time, about the close of the 16th century, still flourishing and not totally deserted as it now is. The *Temple Annals* say that the images of Sūrya and Candra, which were the presiding divinities of the Koṇārak Temple, were brought away to Puri by Narasimḥa Deva. (A. D. 1628-1652). It must follow that the accident which knocked down the temple, however caused, must have occurred between 1602, when Abul·Fazl died, and the seventeenth century. With the removal of the sacred images, from a place which had no manufactures or commerce, nor any large navigable rivers, its desertion by the people who gave it *eclat* was a consequence which took only a few years to be consummated. The sea also had been gradually receding from its old shore-line, for originally the town was situated close by the sea-beach and it is now more than a mile away from it, and that must have also told upon the prosperity and contributed to the desertion of the place.

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**Great Temple—its courtyard.** Of the twenty-eight minor temples noticed by Abul Fazl there is no trace left now; and of the great temple itself, there is but a small remnant. The height of the enclosing wall as given by him is palpably wrong; no enclosing wall that I have ever seen or read of rose to the stupendous height of hundred and fifty cubits. The wall is no longer existent; but from the remains of the trenches formed by those who dug out and carried away the stones from its foundation, I calculate its thickness to have been about 7 or 8 feet; and judging from that I believe the height of the wall was under 25 feet. I noticed a few of the battlements which originally capped the wall and are now lying about here and there, and they measured twenty-two inches in height with a thickness of about 16 inches. They had been evidently set up along the outer edge of the wall, leaving a broad berm behind for soldiers to walk about and defend the temple from outside attack. They are of identically the same shape and size as those of the battlements on the eastern and the southern sides of the Puri enclosure ( Plates LII, LIII ), and people say that the latter were brought from Koṇārak and set up when the Puri temple was repaired in the early part of the last century. This identity of shape and size, coupled with the fact already noticed ( p. [113] ) that these eastern and the southern battlements are different from those that occur on the western and the northern sides and which are older and smaller, fully bear out the tradition.

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The trenches referred to above are not continuous ; they have been filled up in most places ; and the land on the western and the northern sides have been ploughed up and brought under cultivation ; I could not, therefore, measure the length of the enclosure. The breadth was, as far as I could make out, between 500 and 550 feet, and the length must have been about 750 feet. According to Abul Fazl this enclosure was pierced on three sides by gateways ; but the images of horses, tigers and elephants, said to have been placed by these gateways, and still extant, lying by the three doorways of the porch of the temple, and their pedestals are still traceable there. It is not at all likely that those who pulled down the gateways took the trouble to remove the images a great way off only to cast them on the ground. It is to be presumed, therefore, that the sites of the statues were the sides of the doors of the porch ; for I suspect the reporter of Abul Fazl confounded the outer gateways with the three doorways of the porch. The principal gateway was doubtless placed on the eastern side, right in front of the temple. It was most probably covered over by a pyramidal structure like what we see at Bhuvaneśvara and Puri ; but there is nothing to show whether this was repeated on the other sides or not. The Bhuvaneśvara enclosure has propylon on the east side, a small doorway each on the north and the south sides, but none on the west, and the same arrangement at one time obtained in the inner enclosing wall of the Puri temple, but its outer courtyard now has pyramidal propylons of uniform make on all the four sides ; it is difficult to determine, therefore, how many gateways there were at Koṇārak. There might have been three as stated by Abul Fazl ; but there are no traces of them now to be seen. The mistake made by Abul Fazl regarding the position of the statues has led Mr. Stirling to another. He is of opinion that ‘within this ( outer enclosure ) was a second enclosure having three entrances called Aśva or horse, the Hasti or elephant and the Siṁha or lion gate, from the colossal figures of those animals which surmounted the several side posts. The horses and elephants on the north and south, have long since been precipitated from their bases, but the lions or rather griffins still retain the attitude and position assigned to them by Abul Fazl, except that they are standing, instead of sitting, on the bodies of elephants, and have one paw lifted in the act of striking’⁶. Now as the positions of the figures was close by, almost abutting, the entrances of the Audience Hall, there could not have been a second enclosure. The difficulty of removing the statues, urged with regard to the outer enclosure, applies equally to an inner one.

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⁶ *Asiatic Researches*, xv, 328 f.

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The Bhoga Mandapa

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The original plan of the Bhuvaneśvara and the Puri temples included only two buildings, a temple proper and a porch or audience hall, the Jagamohan or Mohan of the Uriyas. Two other buildings were subsequently, at different times, added to each so as to make a suite of four buildings standing in a file [150] and communicating with each other. The Koṇārak builder, in addition to the two principal ones, took in hand a third, and he placed it so that enough room was left between it and the second for a fourth. In other words he had the temple and porch abutting each other and the Bhoga Maṇḍapa or Hall of Offerings at a short distance, leaving space for the Dancing Hall to be afterwards built. From its position, detached from the temple, the third building could not have well served the purposes which its name would indicate. Originally it must have been intended either for a Dancing Hall, a place of entertainment and music, or a lecture-room where the people congregated to hear the Śāstras interpreted, as in the chaultries of Southern India and the Mukti Maṇḍapa of Puri, though it was not an open building such as chaultries and Mukti Maṇḍapas usually are. But whatever it was, it was dismantled during the last century and removed to Puri, where it has now been set up as the Hall of Offerings of the Lord of the world (p. [120]). Its site at Koṇārak is now indicated by a huge mass of rubbish overgrown with jungle.

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The Tower or Temple proper

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Of the other two buildings the temple proper is also now totally dismantled, and forming an enormous mass of stones, studded with a few *pipal* trees here and there, and harbouring snakes, from the dread of which few care to approach it. The only work of art prominently noticeable on it at the time when I visited the place was a figure of a rampant lion, which had projected from the southern face of the tower. Wishing to have it measured with a tape, I desired a cowherd boy to go up and do the needful for me; but the dread of snakes made him refuse my offer of two rupees, when his daily earnings probably did not exceed a penny. I guessed its size to be about 14 feet, and its weight, including that of the horizontal portion which was built into the wall, to be about 6 tons. It has jutted out in the air at a height of about a hundred feet from the ground. Judging from the Great Tower and other temples of Bhuvaneśvara, I believe there were similar figures also on the west and the north sides of the temple but they are now completely buried in rubbish. In 1824, when Mr. Stirling visited the place, only a small section of the temple was standing. It was about one hundred and twenty feet in height, and, when seen from a distance, gave ‘to the ruin a singular appearance, something resembling that of a ship under sail’⁷. This portion was still standing in 1839, when Mr. Fergusson took a drawing of it for his *Picturesque Illustrations of the Architecture of Hindustan*, but when I saw it at the close of 1868 its upper portion had tumbled down. Mr. Fergusson has since produced a restored drawing of this temple and it affords the only representation that can now be had of this most magnificent sample of Orissan art.

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⁷ *Asiatic Researches*, xv, 326.

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How the temple fell cannot now be positively affirmed, but that the destruction was caused either by a sinking of the foundation or by a smart shock of earthquake, there can be no doubt. Exception might be taken to the earthquake theory as no effect of a seismic commotion is now visible on the porch; but the effect of an earthquake on a slender tower upwards of 200 feet high would be very different from what it would be on a squat four-sided room with stone walls from 10 to 20 feet thick, and the tower might well suffer when the room escapes without a crack. It is difficult, however, to conceive that the memory of so severe a seismic catastrophe could be entirely forgotten. No slight quake could knock down so solid a structure of stone as the temple unquestionably was and a quake sufficiently vigorous for the purpose must have been very extensively felt and for certain remembered. But tradition is entirely silent in this respect and I am disposed, therefore, to lay greater stress on the faulty character of the foundation. The ground is everywhere in this locality sandy, and, though it is to be presumed that the architect had taken some precaution against the fault of the soil by carrying his foundation below the level of the upper sandy layer, it is very likely that he failed to reach the solid earth below, and, building on sand rendered the chance of the foundation sinking possible and that chance overtook his work in time. It is certain that the pillars which supported the masonry ceiling of the porch did fall by the sinking of the ground on which they had been built. Situated in the middle of a square room with stone walls 10 to 20 feet they could not break but by sinking and they brought down the ceiling along with them. No force to knock them dowm could be applied latterally which would leave the side walls uninjured; and the walls are uninjured. It is obvious that in falling the pillars did not knock against the walls and we can attribute their fall only to the sinking of their bases. No other theory can suffice to explain the occurrence. If so what has unquestionably happened in the porch may be fairly assumed to have occurred in the temple. Mr. Fergusson is of this opinion. He says, ‘From an examination of the ruins themselves, I am inclined to think that the failure of the marshy foundation that supported so enormous a mass was by far the most probable cause. Had the place been subject to earthquakes, the tottering fragment of the tower that still remains could scarcely have stood for two centuries and lightning could scarcely have shattered so enormous a pyramidal mass and was much more likely to have been attracted by the iron-roofed porch than by the tower which probably had no iron in its composition, while the appearance of the ruin is exactly that which would result from a subsidence of the foundation’⁸. That [151] the temple did not suffer from hostile attack may be assumed as certain, for stone walls of the thickness under notice could not be knocked down by any artillery which an enemy could bring to bear against them two to three hundred years ago. Artillery of the time did not break down the brick temple at Buddha Gayā⁹. Nor can we assume anything like blasting with gunpowder, as the quantity of powder which would have sufficed to knock down the temple would have also told seriously on the four walls of the porch. Mere undermining would have been a dangerous game for the miners; it would have besides required a long time and left a huge tumulus of earth and sand in the neighbourhood. Adverting to the destruction and desecration of the temple, Mr. Stirling gives a story, the main element of which, a loadstone, is obviously fictitious, but the story is worthy of note. It runs thus:

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⁸ ‘Picturesque Illustrations of the Architecture of Hindustan’, p. 27.

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⁹ ‘Buddha Gayā’, p. 81.

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‘The natives of the neighbouring villages have a strange fable to account for its desertion. They relate that a *kumbha pāṭhar* or loadstone, of immense size, was formerly lodged in the summit of the great tower, which had the effect of drawing ashore all vessels passing

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near the coast. The inconvenience of this was so much felt that about two centuries•since, in the Mughal time, the crew of a ship landed at a distance and stealing down the coast, attacked the temple, scaled the tower and carried off the loadstone. The priests, alarmed at this violation of the sanctity of the place, removed the image of the god with all its paraphernalia to Puri, where they have ever since remained, and from that date the temple became deserted and went rapidly to ruin. As above intimated, the origin of its dilapidation may obviously be ascribed either to an earthquake or to lightning. But many causes have concurred to accelerate the progress of destruction when once a beginning had been made. To say nothing of the effects of weather on a deserted building and of the vegetation that always takes root under such circumstances, it is clear that much injury has been done by the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, in forcing out the iron clamps which held the stones together, for the sake of the metal; and it is well known that the officers of the Marhatta government actually beat down a part of the walls, to procure materials for building some insignificant temples at Puri’¹⁰.

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¹⁰ Asiatic Researches, xv. 327.

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From its great height the tower served, as the porch now does, as a beacon to mariners, warning them of the shallow shore of the neighbourhood and it was an easy transit from that to the romantic loadstone and the story of Sinbad the sailor of the *Arabian Nights*. I was at first induced to think that the fall took place before the consecration of the temple and communicated the opinion to Dr. Hunter; but after mature considertion I am forced to a different conclusion. The age of the images of the sun and the moon must date from the time the place was appropriated to Hindu worship in the 5th, the 6th or the 7th century, and the Gangetic king Lāṅguliya Narasiṁha built the great temple for their better accommodation. The consecration, therefore, must have taken place immediately after its completion. Thereafter, we have the testimony of Abul Fazl that the place continued in a thriving condition for three centuries and fell only in the beginning of the 17th century. It is impossible to believe that the temple was left unconsecrated for such a length of time.

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**The Audience Hall.** The Jagamohan or Audience Hall is the only portion of the temple now in existence in its entirety: it passes under the name of the Black Pagoda. It is a square building of 66 feet a side, with a twofold projection on each side. In this respect the Koṇārak Jagamohan is different from the Puri and the Bhuvaneśvara examples. The latter are, as already shown, so broken by a multiplicity of buttress-like projections and receding angles that the original quadrangular character of their ground plan is not at all perceptible to the eye, whereas here the square form is prominently and obtrusively apparent (see Plate LVI and compare with Plate LIV). Mr. Stirling notices the square ground-plan, but adds, ‘If we take in the four projecting doorways, it should rather be called a cross’;¹¹ but the double projections on each side cannot strictly be so designated. The projections are comparatively slight and barely sufficient to break the monotony of the flat walls without disturbing their general character. The plinth is high, about 7 feet, and forms a berm all round the building; but rubbish and broken stones have so accumulated all round that I could not ascertain the way in which it had been ornamented. Its existence is indicated by a flight of nine steps on the east side by which access is had to the top of the berm. Similar flights, unquestionably existed on the north and the south sides; but they are, except in a few places, now buried under rubbish. Above the berm there is a base moulding formed of a tile one foot thick, over it a deep cyma engraved on the upper surface in the form of lotus petals and thereupon a thin receding tile. The walls over this plinth are diversified by niches formed by flat pilasters and divided into two tiers by a broad flat-ribbed band which goes all round the building and gives to the whole the appearance of two storeys. Taking into account the plinth and the bands which lie on the upper row of niches, people generally describe the building as four-storeyed.

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¹¹ Ib. 329.

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**[152]** The niches are set off with floral band and designed for statues of men, women and lions. The bands are of the various types so common at Bhuvaneśvara (see illustrations in Vol. 1), but they are superior both in conception and in execution; taken altogether they afford the most beautiful specimens of Orissan art. Above the upper row of niches there is another series of horizontal bands similar in make to the lower one, but of much greater depth, being equal to the depth of the space devoted to the upper row of niches and this completes the decoration of the side walls.

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The cornice of this building is perfectly horizontal as at Bhuvaneśvara and Puri and projects nearly six feet from the body of the walls. It is formed of large slabs laid flat on the walls, and has, as elsewhere, no support of any kind, except what it derives from the portion resting on the wall on which it is placed, and the weight of the masonry built over it. Its outer edge is carved into a frieze of animals and is set off by a series of richly carved lancet-headed crests.

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The roof begins on the cornice and recedes uniformly to perfect pyramid, the style of building being of the horizontal arch pattern so common in Hindu temples all over India. The perpendicular height of this pyramid is 63 or 64 feet and the slope about 72 feet. The body of the pyramid is not left bare; at intervals ledges of the depth of the cornice project, and these with the cornice form a series of seven steps, of the same character and style, differing only in the figures carved on their edges, the pattern being different—lions, elephants, geese, soldiers, &c. being the objects carved. Above the seventh ledge the pyramidal core is left bare to the height of several feet; in other words it forms a deep recess, the front of which is ornamented by a line of life-size human figures, with uplifted hands, showing as if they were supporting the superincumbent weight of a second series of six ledges. In 1838 when Mr. Fergusson visited the place, most of the figures were *in situ*; but in 1869 they had been removed or broken down. Over the sixth ledge of the second series the bare pyramid re-appears with a line of human figures as in the first instance, and thereupon a series of five ledges are produced. The edges of these are left uncarved, and herein, as in most other details, the architect displays his consummate knowledge of his art. The edges are under 16 inches in thickness, and bassi-rilievi thereon placed at a height of over 80 feet would have been totally lost to the beholder. Over the topmost ledge comes a compressed ribbed dome supported on crouching lions and having over it a bell-shaped figure carved over with lotus petals, and thereupon a second dome supported on lions as the first, the arrangement being the exact counterpart of what obtains in the Audience Hall of the Great Tower at Bhuvaneśvara (Plate XXX). Originally over this stood the vase-shaped Kalaśa common on Orissan porches ; but it has been somehow knocked down.

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The following is Mr. Fergusson's description of this magnificent roof : ‘The roof, which in height is about equal to the width of the temple, or sixty feet, is likewise divided into four compartments, the two lowest of which are composed of six projecting cornices, separated by a deeply recessed compartment containing sculpture as large as life ; while all the faces of these twelve cornices are covered by bassi-rilievi of processions, hunting and battle scenes and representations of all the occupations and amusements of life. The immense variety of illustrations of Hindu manners contained in it may be imagined when we think that, with a height of from one foot to eighteen inches, the frieze extends to nearly three thousand feet in length, and contains, probably, at least twice that number of figures. The upper of the three compartments has only five cornices, and none of their faces are sculptured. The whole is crowned by the lotus-shaped dominical ornament, as is universally the case but which is here of a singularly elegant form. Were such a roof as this placed over a colonnade or on a wall much cut up with openings, it would, no doubt, be overpoweringly heavy ; but placed as it is on a solid wall, with only one opening on each face, and that so deeply recessed, I scarcely know one so singularly appropriate and elegant ; and the play of light and shade from its bold and varied projections and intervening shadows give it a brilliant and sparkling effect that, I confess, I have almost never seen equalled’¹².

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¹² ‘Picturesque Illustrations of the Architecture of Hindustan’, p. 28.

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The porch has, as usual in Orissa, a single door on each side. The door is placed in the middle of the central bay, which projects nearly ten feet from the line of the wall. The western door is covered by the debris of the fallen temple on the outside, and that of the ceiling inside, and could not, therefore, be seen. The doors on the other three sides are very much alike, and, *mutatis mutandis*, the description of one applies to the other two. The most elaborately finished is the eastern gate which forms the main entrance to the chamber. It was originally flanked on each side by a polygonal pilaster, which was *in situ* in 1838 when Mr. Fergusson made his drawing, but I saw no trace of it. The broken face of the wall shown in Plate No. LVI. indicates the position it occupied. On its outer side there were two statues one over the other in a line with the niches in the wall. The left-hand side figures are still extant ; but those on the right side have been destroyed. The pilasters supported an iron beam 21 feet long with an average scantling of 1 to 8 inches (see Vol. 1. p. [36]) and over it was placed a heavy piece of stone 19 x 3 x 3 ft. This formed the architrave, and on its front were carved [153] in bas-relief the images of the nine planets. The top of the architrave was placed flush with the horizontal bands which form the upper tier of the fourfold division of the wall. In Mr. Fergusson's picture some bassi-rilievi are shown on the space between the top of the architrave and the cornice,¹³ but in my photograph the space appears all broken and dilapidated. In fact the fall of the side pilasters brought down the iron beam, the stone architrave and the sculptures above them. In some respect Mr. Fergusson’s picture appears to be a restoration and I am not certain, therefore, whether the side pilasters with their superstructure have fallen since 1838 or had tumbled before that date. At the close of 1868 the beam was lying in front of the temple and the stone architrave on a truck at a distance of above two hundred yards from it.

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¹³ Ib. plate III.

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The face of the stone architrave is divided into nine panels, each containing a human figure, richly ornamented, wearing a high-pointed crown and seated cross-legged on a lotus. The panels are framed by squat pilasters supporting a trifoiled arch ( Plate LVIII ). The design is neat and beautifully executed. The first figure, beginning from the left-hand side, is that of Ravi or the sun. According to a hymn attributed to Vyāsa, he should be of the colour of the hibiscus flower ( jabā ) and very refulgent ; but in sculpture he appears like a genial looking man holding a full-blown lotus in each uplifted hand. The second is Soma or the moon. In appearance it is the counterpart of the first, except in the position of the hands, which are stretched forward, the left holding a water vessel and the right a rosary which he is engaged in counting. The hymn aforesaid assigns him a white colour like that of the conch-shell, or snow. The third is Maṅgala ( Mars ) ; the fourth Budha ( Mercury ), son of the moon ; the fifth Bṛhaspati ( Jupiter ) : the sixth Śukra ( Venus ) ; and the seventh Śani ( Saturn ). In sculpture they are alike in form, feature, ornaments and occupation, except Jupiter who sports a flowing beard. In the hymn, the third is described to be a red-coloured youth, born of the earth, resplendent as an agglomeration of lightning and holding a spike. The fourth is a son of the moon, of a dark blue colour like that of the bud of the priyangu ( Panicum Italicum ), of unrivalled beauty and benign appearance. The fifth is of the colour of gold ; he is the high priest of gods and sages. The sixth is the high priest of the Asuras, and of the colour of the stalk of the winter jessamine ( Jesmenia pubescens ). The seventh is the son of Ravi ( sun ) by Chāyā ( darkness ) and of a deep blue colour. The eighth Rāhu or the ascending node, is the son of Siṃhikā. He was produced by one human body being divided into two, the upper half forming him and the lower half the decending node. He is of a most fierce aspect and the oppressor of the sun and the moon, one or other of which, according to Puranic mythology,¹⁴ he swallows and thereby produces an eclipse. In sculpture he is represented as a grinning grotesque monster, with one immense canine tooth projecting from the upper jaw ; he has a rounded crown with three triangular peaks and a nimbus of rays terminating in dots. In one hand he holds a rounded object, which Mr. Stirling takes for a hatchet, but which is probably meant for the sun, and in the other a crescent moon. The last is Ketu, the descending node, son of Rudra ; he is of the colour of a smoke rising from smouldering straw, fierce and wicked, the oppressor of the stars. The upper part of his body is in all its details similar to that of the first four figures, but the lower part is formed of the body of a serpent which coils round so as at first sight to produce the impression of its being of the same character as that of the first seven figures. The busts of most of the figures are so developed as to appear like those of young women. Mr. Stirling describes the 6th as a youthful female, with ‘plump well rounded figure’¹⁵ ; but the mistake has arisen from the association of the idea of Venus with this figure. As an Englishman, Mr. Stirling could not shake off his early impressions. In India neither the moon nor Venus is anywhere likened to a female. On reference to the photograph ( Plate LVIII ) it will also be seen that the sixth figure does not differ from the others. Images of these planets, besides, occur over the doorway of all the richer temples in Orissa and nowhere has a female been placed in the room of the high priest of the Asuras. In legends Śukra is blind of one eye, but this is not shown in sculpture. The object of placing the planets over the gateway is to make them, who are the arbiters of mundane destiny, subservient to the welfare of the temple.

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¹⁴ The Chāndogya Upaniṣad of the Sāmaveda also refers to this legend.

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¹⁵ Asiatic Researches, xv. 332.

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Both the design and the execution of the frieze are excellent and as the stone was lying uncared for in front of the porch, the Asiatic Society of Bengal some time ago expressed a wish to have it brought to its Museum at Calcutta. The Government, thereupon, sanctioned a grant of of Rs. 3,000 for its removal and the work was made over to the Public Works Department. The grant, however, sufficed for the laying of a tram-road and the removal of the stone to a distance of about two hundred yards, and, the nearest port for putting the stone on board a Government steamer being somewhat over a mile, the work had to be abandoned, and the stone now lies on its truck as shown in the photograph.

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[154] The door frame is of chlorite and of a rectangular shape. It appears, however, in the annexed photograph (Plate LVII) narrow above and broad at the base, like an ancient Egyptian doorway; this is owing to error produced by the camera having been placed in a slanting position on very low ground right in front. Its front is one mass of carving of the richest and most sumptuous description to be seen anywhere in India. The pattern is conventional, being met with not only in different parts of Orissa, notably in the porch of the Great Tower of Bhuvanesvara, but also in the Ajanta Cave No. I¹⁶ and elsewhere; but its finish is most exquisite, The design includes seven distinct bands enclosed in a frame having its edge moulded in the form of cymarecta and set off with a series of lotus-petals edged with beaded ornaments. In the photograph the petals may be mistaken for echinæ. The bands are all set on the same level; they rise from the top of alto-rilievo human figures standing in different attitudes and terminate at the corner of the lintel, the transverse portions on the lintel being in some of the bands differently ornamented. The inmost band has a floral design similar to Fig. 24, Plate XI of Vol 1. The next is formed of two twining serpents which terminate at the top in a female bust. The chaste design and exquisite finish of this scroll cannot be surpassed by any carving of medieval times. The third is formed of panels filled in, alternately, with the coat-of-arms design shown in Fig. 46*b*, Plate XXXIII, Vol. 1, and human couples in disgustingly obscene attitudes. In the transverse portion of this band the coat-of-arms design is omitted and the human couples are replaced by single squatting figures, either singing or playing on musical instruments. The fourth is a trailing vine in the loops of which cherubs are at play. In the transverse portion of this band the vine is dropped and the cherubs are replaced by human figures in a flying attitude, each carrying a female seated on his out-stretched thigh (Fig. 143, Plate XXXVI, Vol. 1). The fifth is formed of a series of miniature pilasters set one over the other, the transverse portion being filled in with musicians playing mostly on the large drum called *khola* (Fig. 169, Plate XXX, Vol. 1). The sixth is a repetition of the third in every detail and the seventh is formed of a string of cucurbitaceous flowers (Fig. 143, Plate XXXVI, Vol. 1). In the middle of the transverse portion of each band there is a panel flanked with pilasters and filled in with bassi-rilievi. The subject of the lowest panel is the sun as shown in the Navagraha frieze, holding a full-blown lotus in each hand and attended by two servants waving *chauris*. In the next panel the central figure is a rājā explaining something to a minister standing with folded hands on one side while a servant on the other side waves a *chauri*. This is repeated in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth panels. In the topmost panel the rājā appears in a niche surmounted by a trifoiled arch and having the head of an elephant on each side.

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