History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c47.74.3

v2.c47.74.3

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.