History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c46.44

v2.c46.44

The ornamentation of the *Vimānas* and the *Jagamohanas* of the Gandharāḍi temples consists entirely of pilasters shaped as miniature temples and we miss the larger *chaitya*-windows of the Paraśurāmeśvara. This total absence of a post-Gupta decorative *motif* certainly indicates a later date. The majority of writers on Indian architecture are inclined to place the Paraśurāmeśvara in the middle of the 8th century A. D. In that case the twin temples at Gandharāḍi should be dated close to that century, approximately fifty years later than the Paraśurāmeśvara. The importance of the Gandharāḍi temples lies in the fact that they provide a link and that a very important one, in the chain of the evolution of the mediaeval Orissan temple type. Up to this time there were no connections between the Paraśurāmeśvara and the Lingarāja groups from the point of view of decorative motifs. Now we know that the Paraśurāmeśvara, the Gandharāḍi temples and the *Vimāna* of the Mukteśvara represent one particular stage, probably the earlier, in the evolution of the Orissan temple type.