History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c47.73

v2.c47.73

Finally, the late Mr. Ganguly ventures forth a theory which is extremely impossible and fallacious. Early in the last century writers on Indian art and antiquities spoke glibly of Buddhist railings, Buddhist Stūpas, etc., but now we know that the stūpa or the tree in railing was a device common both to Buddhism and Jainism. Mr. Ganguly states: “I have referred to a decided Buddhist reminiscence noticed in the Brahminical sculpture of Orissa; I have shown in the second chapter that Orissa at one time was a seat of Buddhism, and as an offshoot of Brahminism, it was slowly assimilated by the former throughout the length and breadth of India, and formed an integral part of it. The religious rites of the parent stock and the branch got nicely commingled together; without referring to any particular text such as that of the Mahāyāna Tāntrika school, this can be clearly proved by making a comparative study of the Buddhistic and Brahminical iconography. I have already mentioned in this chapter some of the allied features. The figure III, Plate V (A) illustrating floral devices issuing out of a vase or urn is a distinct piece of Buddhist sculpture noticed on some of the Buddhist remains. This is met with in the temples of Paraśurāmeśvara and Vaitāl at Bhuvaneśvara. This ornamental device is noticed in the Buddhist and Brahminical caves at Elura.”[1] It will not be necessary to go far in order to prove the fallacy of Mr. Ganguly’s ideals about the sectarian origin of these decorative motifs. None of the Buddhist, Jaina or Hindu excavations of Verul (called Ellora or Elura by mistake) can be earlier than the 7th century A.D. Yet the same motifs in a chaster and more elegant form have been found by Rai Bahadur Pandit Daya Ram Sahni in the Dasāvatāra temple at Deogadh in the Jhansi district and by the writer at Bhumra in the Nagod State.