History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c46.96

v2.c46.96

The *Vimāna* and the *Jagamohana* of the temple of Liṅgarāja or Kṛittivāsa are the most stupendous structures at present existing in Orissa. Their construction is a subject of very great interest to the students of Indian Architecture. Up to 1924 the priests of these two temples kept the interiors of both structures covered with dirty wooden ceilings. Fortunately, the Liṅgarāja temple required repairs very urgently and the author was deputed by the Archaeological Survey, of India to advise the Public Works Department of the Government of Bihar and Orissa in these repairs. At my request the wooden ceilings were removed and the principle of construction stood revealed. There was nothing of importance, which was not known, in the construction of the *Jagamohana*; but that of the *Vimāna* was a revelation to many. The *Vimāna* of the Kṛittivāsa possesses a single opening on the east. During the repairs it was discovered that the stone door-frame from which the wooden gates are hung, conceals behind it two different stone door-frames, the sizes of which do not correspond. The stone lintel of the front door-frame is much lower than that of the rear one, proving thereby that the *Vimāna* and the *Jagamohana* were not built at the same time. When both of them were finished sufficient care was taken to finish the exterior in such a fashion as not to leave any indication of the joining of the structure from the outside, a precaution neglected on two subsequent occasions, when the Nāṭamandira and the Bhogamaṇḍapa were built. After the removal of the wooden ceiling from the interior of the Vimāna it was found to be a tall chamber with a flat roof, composed of heavy slabs laid lengthwise. Over this there was another chamber, access to which was obtained by a steep staircase built through the thickness of the sides of the Śikhara. Mr. Sanat Kumar Rai Chaudhuri, then Executive Engineer, Cuttack Division, ascended this staircase and found the upper chamber lighted by a window. A number of men, whose duty it is to ascend the Śikhara on certain occasions, in order to place lamps on the top of the Āmalaka, state that they can see another window of another chamber over this one, but it is not known at the present day whether there is any method of ingress into it. It is, therefore, certain that the Śikhara of the Liṅgarāja is a hollow pyramid and its interior consists of a number of superimposed chambers, gradually decreasing in size like those of the great temples at Bodh-Gaya and Konch, near Tikari, in the Gaya district of Bihar. The weight of the Śikhara was further reduced by the construction of great trabeate arches in the sides, just over the top of the wall of the Vimāna. The masonry is strongly bounded and there is no core of rubble, as in the case of many early Musalman buildings of India. The stones of the Śikhara were kept in place by the heavy weight of the Āmalaka, which projects a good deal beyond its base. To keep the projection uninjured and in place, a number of stone brackets, shaped as lions, surround the Āmalaka [Figure: Vimāna of the Rāja-Rāṇi Temple Bhuvanesvara—Puri District]