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Hindu architecture was checked, and almost disappeared in Northern India after the Mahommedan conquest ; but the extreme south of India was never brought under the Moslem sway, and religious edifices of considerable dimensions and grandeur continued to be constructed there till the last century. Jainaism flourished in Rajputana and elsewhere after the 10th century A.D., and the specimens of Jaina architecture date from that time. In Northern India the Jainas borrowed the Northern Hindu style, while in Southern India they borrowed the Dravidian style. Digitized by Google 346 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. Northern Indian Style. The earliest specimens of Hindu temple architecture then date from 500 A.D., and these specimens are to be formed in their purity as well as in the greatest pro- fusion in Orissa. The student who has paid a visit to the town of Bhuvanesvara in Orissa* knows more of Hindu temple architecture in its purity than pages of description are likely to teach him. The North-Indian style has some distinct and well- defined features which are noticeable in all the earlier structures all over Northern India. The outline of the high tower or Vimana is curvilinear, and it is surmount- ed by what is called an Amalaka from the name of a fruit which it is supposed to resemble. No trace of divi- sion into storeys is observable, and there are no pillars or pilasters anywhere. The porch, on the other hand, has a conical top with a series of cornices. The rough outline sketch given in p. 348 will illustrate our remarks. Dr. Fergusson points out that the modern temples of Benares (and no Benares temple is over two centuries old) retain, in spite of modifications, the same charac- teristic features as the Vimanas of Orissa built twelve centuries ago.+ * Bhuvanesvara is within one night's journey from Cuttack. The present writer visited the place eight years ago. f It is scarcely necessary to inform our readers that all the facts em- bodied in this chapter are from Dr. Fergusson's excellent and exhaustive work on the History of Indian and Eastern Architecture. Digitized by Google CHAP. VIII.] HINDU & JAINA ARCHITECTURE, &C. 347 Several hundreds of temples are said to have been built in Bhuvanesvara, and numerous specimens still remain, and strike the beholder with astonishment. The most celebrated of them is what is called the Great Temple of Bhuvanesvara, and was built between 617 and 657 A.D. The original structure, consisting of the Vimana and the porch was 160 feet in length ; the Nata Mandir and the Bhoga Mandir having been added in the 1 2th century. The interior of the Vimana is a square of 66 feet, and the tower rises to 180 feet. The whole edifice is of stone, and the exterior is covered with the most elaborate carving and sculpture work. Every individual stone has a pattern carved on it, and this wonderful carving is estimated to have cost three times as much as the erection of the building itself. " Most people would be of opinion that a building four times as large would produce a greater and more im- posing effect ; but this is not the way a Hindu ever looked at the matter. Infinite labour bestowed on every detail was the mode in which he thought he could render his temple most worthy of the Deity ; and whether he was right or wrong, the effect of the whole is certainly mar- vellously beautiful. * * The sculpture is of a very high order and great beauty of design." — Fergusson, p. 422. The far famed "Black Pagoda" of Kanarak, of which the porch alone now remains, is supposed to have been built in 1 24 1 A.D. ; but Dr. Fergusson maintains, with Digitized by 348 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. good reason, that it was built in 850 or 873 A.D. The floor is 40 feet square ; the roof slopes inwards till it Black Pagoda of Kanarak restored. contracts to about 20 feet where it was ceiled with one flat stone roof supported by wrought-iron beams, 21 or 23 feet long, shewing a knowledge of forging iron which has Digitized by Google CHAP. VIII.] HINDU & JAINA ARCHITECTURE, &C. 349 been lost to the Hindus since. The exterior is carved "with infinite beauty and variety on all their twelve faces, and the antefixoe at the angles and bricks are used with an elegance and judgment — a true Yavana could hardly have surpassed." — Fergusson, p. 428. Next we come to the great temple of Jaganndtha at Puri, built after the Vaishnava faith had supplanted the Saiva religion as the prevailing creed of Orissa. It is not merely the change in creed, but the degeneracy in the spirit of Hinduism that is stamped on this later edifice of 1174 A.D. "It is not, however, only in the detail, but the outline, the proportions, and every ar- rangement of the temple shew that the art in this pro- vince at least had received a fatal downward impetus from which it never recovered." — Fergusson, p. 430. The Vim Ana of this temple is 85 feet across the centre and rises to a height of 192 feet; with the porch the total length is 155 feet, while with the N&ta Mandir and the Bhoga Mandir it is like the Great Temple of Bhu- vanesvara 300 feet in length. The province of Bundelcund is rich in ancient Hindu temples, richer than any other province in Northern India, except Orissa. Khajuraho in Bundelcund boasts of a group of some thjrty great temples, nearly all of which belong to the century from 950 to 1050 A.D. ; the first century, as our readers will remember, of Raj- put supremacy succeeding to the dark age of political convulsions. An excellent woodcut given in Dr. Fer- Digitized 350 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. gusson's work of one of these temples shews the modi- fication which the Orissa style had undergone. The one tall Vim&na is surrounded by a number of smaller Vim&nas adjoining to it on all sides. The basement is high, and is surrounded by three rows of sculptured figures. General Cunningham counted 872 statues, mixed up with a profusion of vegetable forms and con- ventional details. The height of the temple is 1 16 feet, i.e., 88 feet above its floor, and the outward appearance is elaborately ornate and rich. In Bhopal territory there is a perfect example of a temple of the nth century. It was built by a king of Malwa in 1060 A.D. The Vimana is ornamented by four flat bands of great beauty and elegance, and the Amalaka surmounting it is also exquisite in design. The carving on the temple is marked throughout by precision and delicacy. Pass we on to Rajputana. Among the celebrated ruins of Chittore, we have seen the temples built by the queen of Kumbhu. Kumbhu was a great conqueror, and was a Jaina by faith, and erected the Jaina temple at Sadri and the marble pillar of victory at Chittore. His queen, Meera Bye, seems to have been an orthodox Hindu, and built two temples (1418-1468 A. D.) which are now in ruins, and overgrown with trees. The style both of the Vimana and of the porch is, of course, that of the Orissa temples. There is a colonnade round the temple, with four little pavilions Digitized by Google CHAP. VIII.] HINDU & JAIN A ARCHITECTURE, &C. 35 1 at the four corners, and this is repeated in the por- tico. There are specimens of ancient temples in the Maharashtra country ,but neither so rich nor so numerous as in Orissa. The interest of the Mahratta temples consists in the fact that here the Orissa or North Indian style struggles with the Dravidian or South Indian style for supremacy. The Mahrattas are a people of the Dravidian race, but their early contact with the Aryans and assumption of Aryan civilization incline them to adopt the Aryan or North Indian style. Hence, traces of both styles are observable in their struc- tures. While specimens of early temple architecture are thus numerous in Orissa, in Bundelcund, in Malwa, in Mihar&shtra, and in Rajputana, — why are they so rare in the very home of the Indo-Aryans,— in the basin of the Ganges and the Jumna ? The reply is obvious. Temple architecture did not properly com- mence (except in Orissa) as we have seen before, earlier than the tenth and eleventh centuries. In the twelfth century the Mahommedans conquered the basin of the Ganges and the Jumna, and not only demolish- ed many of the old existing temples to raise mosques and minars with the stone, but effectually stopped the further progress of temple architecture. A vigorous progress in arts is not possible when political life is extinct ; and such feeble attempts as might otherwise Digitized by Google PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. have been witnessed were, probably, stopped by the bigoted conquerors. Hindu independence still lingered in Rajputana, Maharashtra, Malwa, Bundelcund, and Orissa, and hence in those provinces we find older tem- ples left uninjured, and later temples erected. A great temple was built at Vrinddvana by Man Sing under the tolerant emperor Akbar ; but it is said the lofty spire of the heathen temple offended the eyes of the very devout Aurungzebe, and the temple was knocked down. Every visitor to Vrinddvana has seen what remains of this temple, which has to some extent been restored by the British Government. Temple architecture still adhered, though with considerable modifications, to the old Orissa style, but adopted new designs from the Saracenic style. We see this in the modern temples of Benares, in the temple of Visvesvara for instance. The original Vimina of the Orissa temple is attenuated, and multiplied so as to form a number of small Vimdnas round the central one, and the porch instead of having the conical roof of Orissa has a dome of the Saracenic style, very elegant, but not in keeping with the style of the temple.