History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v1.c26.29

v1.c26.29

With the death of Narasimha I, we come to the end of the age of the great temple-builders in Orissa. The conqueror of Northern Orissa, Anantavarman Choḍagaṅga, had begun, if not completed, the great temple of Jagannāth at Purushottama or Puri. According to tradition, which is not always reliable, the temple was finished by Anaṅgabhīma I. Those who have seen the great temple at Puri and its first Maṇḍapa called the Jagamohana in Orissa, before its exterior was covered with modern sand-plaster and whitewash, may remember its graceful outline and the Nāṭyamandira and the Bhoga-maṇḍapa are later additions. This can be proved independently of the very doubtful testimony of the Mādalā Pāñji. The great temple of the Sun-God at Koṇārka consists of a sanctum (Vimāna) and one Maṇḍapa called the Jagamohana, showing that the two later *Maṇḍapas* had not come into vogue in Orissa till 1264 A. D. When the present writer was engaged in the repairs of the temple of Kṛttivāsa or Liṅgarāja at Bhubaneśvar, he found that the *Vimāna* and the *Jagamohana* were built at the same time but the *Nāṭyamandira* was added at a much later date. When the *Nāṭyamandira* was added, it destroyed the great beauty of a *Chaitya*-window in the centre of the facade of the *Jagamohana* against which the *Nāṭyamandira* was built. Similarly in the case of the little temple of Pārvatī in the same compound at Bhubaneśvar, the *Nāṭyamandira* and *Bhogamaṇḍapa* are later additions. Therefore, originally the North-Eastern type of mediæval temples were of the same plan as the North-Western, consisting of a *Garbhagṛiha* and a *Maṇḍapa*. The incline of the corners of the sides of the *Śikhara* decreased in the 11th century, as proved by a comparison of the spire of the temple of Jagannātha with that of the Brahmeśvara or the Liṅgarāja temples at Bhubaneśvar. The activity in temple-building was not confined to the kings of this period only. The Bhubaneśvar inscription of Svapneśvaradeva and other minor records prove that the majority of madiæval temples of Orissa were built during the period extending from the reign of Anantavarman Choḍagaṅga to that of Narasimha I. A decline set in after the death of Narasimha I, which lasted till the overthrow of the dynasty in the early years of the fifteenth century.