History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c46.134

v2.c46.134

The most important underlying principle in the evolution of Orissa temple architecture in Orissa appears to have been neglected by the majority of writers on the subject. From the middle of the 8th centrry to the end of the 15th, the constant principle in the evolution of Indian temples is the shape and the outline of the Śikhara. Out of the four styles, Nāgara, Kaliṅga, Veśara and Drāviḍa, the Kaliṅga can be recognised by the curvature of the Śikhara. In the beginning this curvature is slight and agrees with 7th century temples of Nachna Kuthara¹ and Aihole or Paṭṭadkal². In the first change in the Kaliṅgān style, this outline of the Śikhara changes and becomes abruptly curved near the Āmalaka as in the Baudh temples and the Liṅgarāja-Ananta-Vāsudeva and the Brahmeśvara group. Some time in the 11th century this contour again changes and becomes more regular from the top of the Garbhgṛiha to the Āmalaka. The best example of this is the temple of Jagannātha. The outline of the Śikhara of the Rājā Rāṇi is exactly similar to the exception of the projection in the shape of miniature Śikharas of miniature temples on the body of the main Śikhara. The drab commonplace appearance of the Śikhara of the Jagannātha temple is entirely due to the modification of the outline, which becomes more of the Nāgara type, lacking, at the same time, the dignity of the latter on account of the smooth unbroken surface of the facades of the *Śikhara*. Stirling observed early in the 19th century, “It seems unaccountable, in an age when the architects obviously possessed some taste and skill, and were in most cases particularly lavish in the use of sculptural ornament, that so little pains should have been taken with the decoration and finishing of this sacred and stupendous edifice.”¹ Fergusson comments on this rightly, “It is not in the detail which, however, is seriously obscured by the plasterings applied during the last two or three centuries, but the outline, the proportions, and arrangements of the temple, show that the art in the province had received a downward impetus at the time.”² The latest writer on the subject, the late Mr. Mono Mohan Ganguly, had no observation to make on the style of the *Śikhara* and its co-relation to earlier and later styles of temple architecture in the country.