History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c46.18

v2.c46.18

Seventeen years ago the late Mr. Mano Mohan Ganguly made certain statements about the evolution of Orissan temple Architecture which may yet be believed by the credulous even now. "It is reasonable to suppose that a considerable length of time must have elapsed since the art began to be first practised in Orissa, for I have already drawn the reader's attention to definite and stereotyped system of technique followed in Orissan architecture and sculpture. I may accordingly safely conclude that the Orissan style of temple building was much developed in the beginning of the Christian era and even before that."¹ The conclusion is totally wrong; because, in the first place the Paraśurāmeśvara, the oldest temple in Orissa, can not be earlier than the 8th century A. D., according to the inscription on the Navagraha-slab, inspite of its resemblance to the Post-Gupta temples; in the second place there is no temple in Northern, Central or Southern Orissa the date of which is earlier than that of the Paraśurāmeśvara, and in the third place, none of the earlier group of the Khandagiri and Udaygiri caves are temples or shrines proper. Most of them are monasteries like the Svargapurī and Mañchapuri or the great Rāṇi-Nūr Gumphās or are single cells for hermits like the Bāgh or Sarpa Gumphās. There is thus a gap of at least eight hundred years between the latest Jaina cave of the earlier group at Khandagiri or Udaygiri and the earliest temple known in Orissa. Consequently, there is not the slightest possibility of the beginning of the evolution of the Orissan temple type in the pre-Christian centuries.