English
In Bengal a new element of beauty was borrowed from the gracefully bent roofs of the ordinary thatched huts of the people. Temples built of stone are almost unknown in Bengal, but brick temples dedicated to Siva are built with their cornices gracefully bent in imitation of thatched roofs, Digitized by Google CHAP. VIII.] HINDU & JAINA ARCHITECTURE, &C. 353 and the walls are sometimes covered with elaborate designs in terra-cotta. The pointed arches in these temples are borrowed from the Saracenic style, and altogether the modern Bengal temples of Siva are about as wide a departure from the original North Indian style as could well be imagined. Jaina architecture in Northern India adopted the Orissa type of Vimdna, but in course of time resorted to the graceful Saracenic dome also. The practice of grouping temples is more largely resorted to by Jainas than by the followers of any other religion. Rich individuals, belonging to the middle classes, contribute temple after temple from century to century ; and while each individual temple lacks the grandeur of Hindu temples built by royal command, the collection of temples in course of time converts a hill side or a sacred spot into a " city of temples." Such are the temples of Palitana in Guzrat, some of which are as old as the nth century, and the latest of which have been constructed in the present century. The shrines in hundreds cover the summits of two extensive hills and the valley lying between, and the general effect of the entire collection of edifices is superb. Girnar is a celebrated spot in Indian history. Asoka the Great carved a copy of his edicts there, and kings of the Shah and the Gupta lines recorded their inscrip- tions. Groups of Jaina temple have been erected here by the Jainas since the tenth century, one of them R. C. D. 9 A. L— III. 23 Digitized by Google 354 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. by the brothers Tejpala and Bastupala, builders of one of the two famous temples of Abu. Not far from the hill of Girnar was the ancient temple of Somanitha destroyed by Mahmud of Guzni. Dr. Ferguson thinks it was a Jaina, not a Hindu temple ; and the kings who repaired it after its destruction by Mahmud were certainly Jainas. But the pride of Jaina architecture are the two un- rivalled temples at Abu* Alone among the temples of India they are built entirely of white marble, which must have been quarried and taken from a distance of over 300 miles. One of these temples was built by Vimala Shah about 1032 A. D., and the other as stated above by the brothers Tejapala and Bastupala between 1 197 and 1247 A. D. The porch is supported on ele- gant pillars exquisitely carved, and the inside of the dome is ornamented with elegant and exquisite designs unequalled in India. Southern Indian Style. We now turn to Southern Indian or Dravidian style* which is entirely distinct from the Northern style. Roughly speaking the structures of the Peninsula south of the Krishna river are built in this style. No con- nection between the Buddhist style and the style of the * Abu is not far from the nearest railway station. The present writer visited the spot in 1883, proceeding by a winding path up the hill, 16 miles in length. But another road less than half as long was under construction, Digitized by Google CHAP. VIII.] HINDU & JAINA ARCHITECTURE, &C. 355 structural edifices in Northern India has been traced. The style of the earliest temples in Orissa shews no traces of the Buddhist style. The oldest of those temples are perfect structural edifices, perfect in their design and execution,— and the history of the style can be traced no further backwards. The Dravidian or Southern style, however, is shewn to have grown out of the Buddhist style of excava- tion. The earliest existing specimens of Dravidian tem- ples were excavated, not built. And in their latest developments, the Dravidian built edifices still bore marks of their origin. Ellora is far to the north of the river Krishna. There can be little doubt, however, judging from the design and construction, that the edifices at Ellora belong to the Dravidian type. The temple of Kaildsa was erected in the eighth or ninth century A. D., and the Dravi- dians of the south, the Cheras or the Cholas are sup- posed to have extended their conquests northward about this period, during the eclipse of the power of the Chalukyas. This explains the existence of this remarkable specimen of the Dravidian style so far north of the Krishna river. An extensive pit 270 ft. by 1 50 ft. is excavated in the solid rock. In the centre of this rectangle stands the temple, with a Vimana 80 to 90 ft. high, a large porch supported by 16 columns, a detached porch connected by a bridge, and a Gopura or gateway. Digitized 356 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. There are besides two dipaddns or lamp posts and cells all round. It is a model of a complete structural temple, but carved out of solid rock ; and the mono- lethic character of these vast edifices gives to them an air of solidity, strength and grandeur which strikes all beholders. The cells ail round are in imitation of Buddhist edifices, but each of the seven cells is devoted to a separate Hindu deity. The arrange- ment shews the Hindu style emerging out of the older Buddhist style. When we turn from the rock cut temples to the structural temples of Southern India, we are struck with the very recent dates which must be assigned to all the greatest and best among them. Temple archi- tecture in the southern style was carried on with re- markable vigour and assiduity in the south of the Krishna river, during the long centuries when Northern India and even the Deccan were under Musalman rule. And the temple builders of the south did not rest from their labours until the English and the French were struggling for mastery in the Carnatic in the last century ! One of the oldest of the great structural temples in the south is the Great Pagoda of Tanjore ; but no earlier date than the 14th century A. D. can be claimed for it, and it is supposed to have been built by a king of Conjeveram,— the classic K&nchi. The perpendicular base is two storeys in height, and above this the construction tapers like a Digitized by Google CHAP. VIII.] HINDU & JAINA ARCHITECTURE, &C. 357 pyramid, rising in thirteen storeys to the summit which is crowned by a dome said to consist of one single massive stone. The total height is 190 ft. and the Great Pagoda of Tanjore. appearance of this magnificent structure is elegant and graceful. Sufficiently removed in style from the rock Digitized by Google | 358 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. cut temples of Ellora, it nevertheless bears traces of the same design. One of the most venerated and most ancient of the temples of Southern India is that of Chillambaram on the sea coast, a little to the north of the mouth of the Kaveri river. It was certainly commenced in the ioth or nth century A. D., but the most imposing edifices of the temple have been built in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. To these centuries must be as- signed the great Gopuras or gateways, the temple of P&rvati, and the magnificent hall of 1,000 columns. The porch of the temple of Pdrvati is remarkably ele- gant. The pillars of the hall of 1,000 columns are arranged 24 in front and 41 in depth, and this " forest of granite pillars, each of a single stone, and ail more or less carved and ornamented " produces a grandeur of effect. The magnificent temple at Seringham, close to Tanjore, was built in the last century ; and indeed the progress of the building was stopped by its being occupied and fortified by the French in their ten years' struggle with the English for the possession of Trichi- nopoly. The fourteen or fifteen elaborately carved and ornamented gateways produce an imposing effect when viewed from a distance. But there is no central and superior structure rising above the rest, and this is a want common to nearly all the great temples of Southern India. They are all more or less collections Digitized by Google CHAP. VIII.] HINDU & JAINA ARCHITECTURE, &C. 359 of structures, bewildering in their richness and beauty, but the eye does not rest on any central imposing structure as in the temples of Northern India. Madura boasts of a great temple commenced it is said in the 16th century, but the temple itself was built by Trimulla Nayak in 1622 to 1657 A. D. It is a great rectangle, about 720 ft. by 840 ft., possessing nine Gopurasand a hall of 1,000 columns, whose sculp- tures and elaborate designs excel those of most other edifices of the class. Besides the temple, Madura also has a far famed Choultrie, also built by the same Nayak for the reception of the presiding deity on the occasion of his visit of ten days to the king. It is a great hall 333 ft. by 105 ft. consisting of four ranges of columns, all of which are different, and most ela- borately carved. In one of that chain of islands which seem to con- nect India with Ceylon, stands the celebrated temple of Ramesseram, exhibiting all the beauties of the Dra- vidian style in their greatest perfection. Like the struc- tures of Madura, this temple (with the exception of a humble and ancient Vim&na) was built in the 17th century. Externally the temple is enclosed by a wall, 868 ft. by 672 ft. and 20 ft. high, with four great Go- puras on the four sides, — one of which alone has been finished. The glory of the temple, however, is in its corridors, extending to a total length of nearly 4,000 ft. The breadth varies from 20 to 30 ft. and the height 360 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. is 30 ft.