History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c46.6

v2.c46.6

In the earliest type of the mediæval Orissa temple the three regular features, viz., *Vimāna*, *Jagamohana* and *Śikhara*, are present in complete forms. During the six centuries of the existence of the *Kāliṅgan* type of temples new features were added and older ones were metamorphosed in form but remained constant factors. We do not know of any instance of a flat-roofed temple of the Gupta period, like that of Bhumra, Nachna Kuthara and Lāḍ Khān’s temple at Aihole,¹ in Orissa or the surrounding district, which were at one time within the zone of higher influence. There is a consensus of opinion among scholars that among mediæval temples of Orissa the Paraśurāmeśvara of Bhuvaneśvara is the oldest.² This opinion is certainly correct, because in the Paraśurāmeśvara and its allied type, the twin temples at Gandharāḍi and the Mukteśvara at Bhuvaneśvara, we find a modest *Śikhara* of the same type as the Daśāvatāra temple at Deogaḍh in the Jhansi district and the Durgā temple at Aihole³ in the Bijapur district of the Bombay Presidency. In Northern India the only other temple with a similar modest *Śikhara* is the temple of Śiva at Nachna Kuthara.⁴ The difference between this early *Śikhara* in Kalingan temples and its later developements, as is to be seen in the temples of Liṅgarāja or Kṛittivāsa, Ananta Vāsudeva, Brahmeśvara, etc., at Bhuvaneśvara and that of Jagannātha at Puri, is that the older type of the *Śikhara* in the first group curves gradually but the later type takes a more pronounced curve near the top.