A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c8.97

c8.97

to the present day. Fergusson states that he was personally acquainted with ‘upwards of thirty great Dravidian temples, or groups of temples, any one of which must have cost as much to build as an English cathedral—some a great deal more’. Several such edifices, at Ramesvaram, Tinnevelly, Madura, and other places, are described in his book. The buildings at Madura are of special interest because they can be dated closely, having been erected by Tirumal Nāik, a local chieftain, who reigned from 1623 to 1659. Fig. 13 gives a general view of the Madura temple, a typical example. The corridors or cloisters connected with such temples are of wonderfully large dimensions—those of Rāmesvaram, for instance, aggregating nearly 4,000 feet in length—and are filled with weird, fantastic sculpture. The sculpture will be illustrated in due course in a later chapter. The architecture, which resembles that of the earlier temples in its general lines, need not be further discussed for the purposes of this work. The most marvellous of all Dravidian temples is the well-known rock-cut Kailās temple at Elūra, excavated from a hill-side by a Rāshtrakūta king in the eighth century. Some of the sculptures will be noticed subsequently.