History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c47.74

Language: English

v2.c47.74.1

The evolution of the chaitya-window as a decorative motif is nowhere better illustrated in India than in the early mediæval temples of Orissa (800-1200 A.D.). It has been stated above that the chaitya-windows of the Paraśurāmeśvara are early Gupta in form. The two types used in the Jagamohana of this temple can be traced back as early as the lintel bearing the Kṣānti-vādin Jātaka in the Sarnath Museum. But the great chaitya-windows on the facades of the *Śikhara* show the beginning of stylization. In the first stage the chaitya-window is practically the same. It is converted into three separate chaitya-windows, one over the other. There are three similar ones over the central niche at the back and two such over the side niches.¹ The next step is reached in the Mukteśvara where the base is formed by a narrow band bearing small sunken panels with bas-reliefs, one of the very best examples of the idea of real naturalism and perspective of the Orissa artist. Even the side wings are complete. The medallion consists of five different circles, unconcentric, but placed within one another. The largest periphery contains a bell in the centre, hung from a ellipsoid projection on the top of the medallion, from a chain which issues out of the mouth of a *Kīrttimukha* placed above the projection. The second is much smaller and contains a lotus. The third and fourth are really one, and the fourth and the smallest contains a human head in relief.

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The bands of the *Śikhara* on the sides are really innumerable chaitya-windows, superimposed, in fret work. In the *Vimāna* of the Liṅgarāja we see the next step, in which the ornament consists of a large chaitya-window above, and a smaller one in projection in front of it, while below the smaller chaitya-window there is a third, of about the same size. The larger chaitya-window contains two circular medallions while the same number are to be found in the two smaller ones. The chaitya-window motif is amply used over this facet, at the base of which this collection of chaitya-windows has been placed. A similar arrangement is to be found in the central facet of the northern facade also. Slightly diversified is the chaitya-window in the central facet of the northern facade of the *Jagamohana*, but here there is a bas-relief below it and a miniature temple on each flank. This arrangement occupies the central area of six out of the nine steps in the lowest tier of the pyramidal roof. There is a similar arrangement in the second tier where the chaitya-windows occupy five out of seven steps, but in this case there are *Śikharas* instead of stepped pyramids on the miniature temples on the sides. There is only one chaitya-window with two medallions. Exactly the same arrangement is to be found in the central facet of the southern facade of the *Jagamohana*. The large and beautiful chaitya-window on the ends of the Vaitāl Deul are slightly earlier.

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They resemble those in the facade of the Viśvakarmā Cave at Ellora or Verul.¹ There are two chaitya-windows over the central niche of the type of the panels of the Gāndhāra niches, consisting of a central circular projection with a pointed top and a segment of an arch hanging from each end of the central portion.² The lower chaitya-window is complete with medallion but without side wings and has been placed over the pilasters as a roof; but only the two segments of arcs are preserved of the upper and larger chaitya-window. Most probably the upper part of this chaitya-window was destroyed when this portion was plastered over and the three *Āmalakas* surmounted by *Triśūlas* placed over it by somebody ignorant of the shape of the Dravidian Gopuram. The chaitya-window occurs in its latest stylized form on the Śikhara of the Rājā-Rāṇī, where the arcs of two superimposed chaitya-windows have coalesced to form something of the shape of Saracenic arch. This form of the chaitya-window alone will be sufficient to prove the very late date of the Rājā-Rāṇī, because in Sarnath my friend Pt. Govinda Malaviya has succeeded in proving that the coalescence of the arcs of the upper and lower chaitya-windows cannot be earlier than the beginning of the 11th century. Further stylization of the chaitya-window is to be observed in the temple of Lakshmī in the compound of the temple of Jagannātha at Puri.

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Here the upper arc and the sidewings have formed a separate figure in which under a pointed arch there are three medallions, circular in shape but the peripheries of which intersect. The plastering of the temple of Jagannātha and the total destruction of ornaments of the exterior of the Vimāna and the Jagamohana have made it impossible to judge the shape of the chaitya-window used in these two structures. The final form of the chaitya-window in Orissan buildings is to be found in the plinth of the Vimāna of the Sūrya Deul at Konārak. The chaitya-window forms a bold projection in the plinth moulding, the Pāda, just below the Kumbha, and stands chastely apart between the larger Kumbhas in projection. From the top of it rises a long projection, which ends in a rectangular sunken panel, containing a meandering creeper which ends just below the Basanta.¹