History of India, c. 150 A.D. to 350 A.D.: Naga–Vakataka Imperial Period c19.s2.6

c19.s2.6

There was a brick-wall round the temple of Bhūbharā. Thousands of bricks still lie in a square round the temple remains. Most of these bricks where I examined the heap (East Gate) disclosed Brāhmī letters of c. 200 A.D. I have brought to the Patna Museum two such bricks. They are important as affording some reliable data on the date of the temple. The letters on the rough bottom-side read darva-ārā[la] on one and darva (l. 1) -ārālā (l. 2) on the other.² Darva is ‘hood’ and ārāla or ārālā is ‘arch’, from ārā, ‘segment of a circle’, ‘a spoke’; cf. Sanskrit arāla. These marked bricks are, as a matter of fact, voussoir bricks. Arā seems to mean a voussoir, and in ārālā we seem to discover the technical architectural Hindu term for the horse-shoe arch. The name darva-ārālā, ‘hood-arch’, may refer to the shape of the arch, or to the purpose of accommodating hoods of Nāga images. It is evident that the outer wall of the temple had niches with round arches for reception of images. The smooth face of one brick has a clear bhū inside a bigger letter which is a large bhā. This large letter is followed by a large rā and a ya with an anusvāra.