History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c46.141

Language: English

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In the strict chronological order we must now revert to the second and third maṇḍapas called, respectively, Naṭamandita and Bhogamaṇḍapa in Orissa in all temples where they exist. The principal structures of this class are the Liṅgarāja, the Ananta Vāsudeva and the little temple of Pārvatī in Bhuvaneśvara and the great temple of Jagannātha and the smaller temple of Lakshmī in the same compound. The very fact that the majority of the temples at Bhuvaneśvara and the Sūrya Deul at Konarak do not possess these additions prove that these members of the great temples were considered necessary after the days of Narasimha I, *i. e.*, the 13th century A. D. The Nāṭamandira of the Liṅgarāja is a plain square hall built in the same style as the *Jagamohana* but wider, and admits more light and air, as it is widely open on the sides. Though it is entirely devoid of ornamentation, it possesses a dignity of its own on account of the simple and chaste panelling of the exterior. Its walls are not so thick and it appears to have been built when the expenditure of a large amount was impossible. The Nāṭamandira of the Jagannātha is a huge clumsy affair. Even the late Mr. Mano Mohan Ganguly, who praised anything and everything he saw in Orissa, observed: "The natamandira is a subsequent addition to the Jagamohana, for courses of stone of the former do not correspond with those of the latter;

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its constructive peculiarities are similar to those of the natamandira of Lingaraja." It is square in shape and is a large roomy hall, the roof of which is supported by sixteen pillars arranged in the form of a square.¹ In front of it is the latest addition to the temple of Jagannātha, the Bhogamaṇḍapa, added, according to the chronicles, by Purushottamadeva (1435-97 A. D.) All three *maṇḍapas* of the Jagannātha have pyramidal roofs which give the whole arrangement a monotonous appearance, relieved only by the great Śikhara of the Vimāna in the back-ground. The Bhogamaṇḍapa has four openings in the middle of the four sides, on the great stone door-frames of which are to be found the latest examples of Orissan art, degenerate as it had become in the 15th century. At some later date the carvings on the whole of the southern facade became covered by the erection of a covered passage from the kitchen in the outer compound. The exterior of the north and east facades are painted with red ochre; but fortunately on these two sides the carvings have escaped the vandalism of the Brahman priests of Puri. These priests think even now that the ancient emperors and kings of Orissa were totally ignorant of the art of decorating their sacred buildings and did not know the use of colour wash and modern paintings.

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Consequently we find cheap Bengali fresco-paintings, neither ancient nor modern, desecrating the interior of the Nāṭamandira, cheap glassware of the continent of Europe and, above all, modern plaster and whitewash. The roof of the Nāṭamandira is much lower than that of the Jagamohana on the east and the Bhogamaṇḍapa on the west. Whatever beauty this great hall once possessed has been totally destroyed on account of the standard ignorance of the Brāhmaṇa priests of the temple of Jagannātha and the general conservatism of the people of Orissa, which prevents any change. Whitewash, according to the Mādala Pāñji was applied to this great temple sometime in the late 18th century by one of the faineant Gajapatis of Khurda and consequently all literate and semi-literate priests of Jagannātha claim that originally this great temple was entirely covered with plaster and whitewash. Not only so, the remains of carvings of the exteriors of the Vimāna and the Jagamohana have also been filled up and the grosser obscenity of the double and treble erotic reliefs accentuated by the very injudicious application of different colours. There are two gates to the two compound walls in front of the eastern gateway of the Bhogamaṇḍapa. The gate of the inner enclosure is ornamented in the same style as the Bhogamaṇḍapa, but its construction cannot be earlier than the 17th or the 18th centuries, because the decorative motifs used in it are still further decadent. The outer gate, e.

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g., the eastern gate of the outer enclosure is a recent erection: the propylon is as modern as the palace of the modern Raja of Puri.