History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c46.53

v2.c46.53

The low compound wall is ornamented with a row of niches in relief bearing on their tops a row of miniature chaitya-windows, over which, separated by a projecting moulding, is a series of lotus petals, which certainly are the proto-type of the Afghan and Mughal Kāṅgurā battlements. The plan of the Jagamohana, which is the first structure one meets with immediately after entering the low enclosure, is entirely different from that of the Paraśurāmeśvara or the twin temples at Gandharāḍi. There are four projecting eaves, the eastern one of which has been turned into the Antarāla, when the Jagamohana was built. Three side ones still exist. They are regular porches very short in breadth, consisting of two uprights, supporting a sloping roof over which are the roof-slabs, corrugated on the surface like the roof-slabs of the great Śaiva monasteries at Chandrehe in the Rewa State,² and Ranod and Pawaya in the Gwalior State. Over this roof there is a projection rising perpendicularly, which is a mere stylized arrangement of a chaitya-window. The whole thing is surmounted by a grotesque lion. The openings on the side are filled in the style of the Gandharāḍi Jagamohanas with a Jāli or lattice below and a row of miniature Śikharas above. The Jagamohana of the Mukteśvara is the earliest specimen of the later Jagamohanas of mediæval temples of this country, which after the 12th century was adopted as the model of the Śikharas of Vimānas. It is a regular stepped pyramid. Out of the twelve steps in this pyramid, eight rise regularly from the bottom, while the remaining four are irregular, giving the appearance of a snub-nose.