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A Hindu temple is nothing if not profusely ornate and elaborately carved, and that wonderful and endless carving and sculpture work covers every reli- gious edifice in India, from Orissa and Rajputana to Mysore and Ramesseram. We will now conclude this chapter with some thoughtful observations which the elaborate carving of the Hullabid temple suggests to our author, whom we have so often quoted in this chap- ter. " If it were possible to illustrate the Hullabid tem- ple to such an extent as to render its peculiarities fa- miliar, there would be few things more interesting or more instructive than to institute a comparison be- tween it and the Parthenon at Athens. Not that the two buildings are at all like one another ; on the con- trary, they form the two opposite poles, the alpha and omega of architectural design ; but they are the best Digitized by Google CHAP. VIII.] HINDU & JAIN A ARCHITECTURE, &C. 367 examples of their class, and between these two extremes lies the whole range of the art. * The Parthenon is the best example we know of pure refined intellectual power applied to the produc- tion of an architectural design. Every part and every effect is calculated with mathematical exactness, and executed with a mechanical precision that never was equalled. * The sculpture is exquisitely designed to aid the perfection of the masonry, severe and god-like, but with no condescension to the lower feelings of hu- manity. " The Hullabid temple is the opposite of all this. It is regular, but with a studied variety of outline in plan and even greater variety in detail. All the pillars of the Parthenon are identical, while no two facets of the Indian temple are the same ; every convolution of every scroll is different No two canopies in the whole build- ing are alike, and every part exhibits a joyous exu- berance of fancy scorning every mechanical restraint. All that is wild in human faith or warm in human feel- ing is found pourtrayed on these walls ; but of pure in- tellect there is little, less than there is of human feeling in the Parthenon. * * "For our purpose the great value of the study of these Indian examples is that it widens so immensely our basis for architectural criticism. It is only by be- coming familiar with forms so utterly dissimilar from those we have hitherto been conversant with that we Digitized 368 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V perceive how narrow is the purview that is content with one form or one passing fashion. By rising to this wider range, we shall perceive that architecture is as many-sided as human nature itself, and learn how few feelings and how few aspirations of the human heart and brain there are that cannot be expressed by its means." Fergiisson, p. 403. These thoughtful and philosophical observations on architecture naturally suggest some reflections to the student of history. Why is it that the architecture of India displays what Dr. Fergusson calls a lack of " pure intellect ? M Why is it again that the same architecture displays such a joyous exuberance of fancy and " pure feeling"— such an uncontrollable desire to represent on religious edifices the teeming millions of living crea- tures with all their humble feelings and hopes and fears, their every-day occupation, their wars and triumphs, their toil and their sorrows, and even their sins ? The first question is easily answered. There was no lack of " pure intellect " in the land of Kapila and Arya- bhatta, but there was a disinclination, unfortunately, among the upper classes to apply themselves to voca- tions requiring manual exertion. There is no doubt this was in the first instance owing to the enervating climate of a tropical country ; and ail who could avoid physical exertion and toil, and had recourse to contem- plation and intellectual pursuits. And when the caste- system was once formed, this disinclination to physical Digitized by Google CHAP. VIII.] HINDU & JAIN A ARCHITECTURE, &C. 369 exertion became a part of the social rules for the upper castes. It was impossible that the thinking popula- tion, the Kshatriyas and the Brahmans, should apply themselves to carving and sculpture, and intellect of the higher order was thus divorced for ever from these fine arts. The artisan classes possessed that wonderful skill in decorative art which characterizes the Hin- dus in all branches of industry, and they acquired that facility in workmanship which the experience of centuries teaches. No labour was too gigantic for them to attempt ; no design was too minute or elaborate for them to accomplish. But nevertheless to the very close of the Hindu period they remained artisans, genera- tions of skilled workers and nothing more. The wonder- ful edifices with which they have covered India under the bidding of the priest or the king are remarkable, more for the gigantic labour and the minute and endless elaboration which they display than for any lofty in- tellectual conception, any design of a creative mind. And among the thousands of graceful, pleasing, and na- tural figures and faces of men and women, which simple observation of nature taught the artisans to copy in stone in every temple and porch, we shall in vain seek for that high order of intellectual conception which marks the marbles of Greece and Rome. A Phcedias and a Michael Angelo were impossible in India. For a reply to the second enquiry, we must seek for deeper causes. Not only in the temples of Greece, but R. C. D., A. I. — III. 24 Digitized by Google 370 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. in the churches of mediaeval and modern Europe, reli- gious designs and subjects have been thought appropri- ate for religious edifices. Painted windows representing scenes from the life of Christ and other holy subjects beautify the churches of Protestant nations, and marble images of the Virgin and the Child, of saints and of holy persons, decorate and fill Catholic cathedrals. In India the countless temples of gods are sculptured, not only with the images of gods and goddesses, but with a representation of the whole universe, animate and in- animate ; of men and women in their daily occupations, their wars, triumphs, and processions ; of aerial and ima- ginary beings, Gandharvas and Apsaras and dancing girls ; of horses, snakes, birds, elephants and lions ; of trees and creepers of various kinds ; of all that the sculptor could think of and his art could depict. To the Hindu the problem suggests its own solution. The idea of religion in Europe is connected with the glory of God and the teachings of Christ, with sermons in churches and the keeping of the sabbath. To the Hindu his whole life in all its minute acts is a part of his religion. Not only moral precepts, but the rules of social and domestie life, of eating and drinking and be- haviour to fellow-men and fellow-creatures, are a part of his religion. It is his religion which teaches the warrior to fight, the learned man to prosecute his studies and contemplation, the artisan to ply his trade, and all men to regulate their conduct towards each other. The very Digitized by Google CHAP. VIII.] HINDU & JAINA ARCHITECTURE, &C. 37 1 conception of Brahman in the Upanishads, and in all later religous writings is the all-embracing universe ; all is an emanation from Him ; all returns to Him. The very sig- nification of the word Dharma in the ancient Dharma Sastras is not religion in the modern sense of the word, but the totality of human duties and of human life in all its occupations, pursuits, and daily actions. Dharma regulates studies, occupations, and trades. Dharma re- gulates eating and drinking and the enjoyments of life. Dharma lays down civil and criminal law and the rules of inheritance. Dharma rules men and the animal and vegetable kingdoms below, and saints and gods above. So comprehensive is this term that it denotes even the qualities of inanimate objects ; it is the Dharma of the fire to burn, of trees to grow, of water to seek the lowest level. And though the modern Hindu is far removed in ideas from his ancestors, yet even to this day the whole life of an orthodox and religious Hindu is controlled by rules and sanctions which he calls his Dharma, rules regulating every act and every word in political, social, and domestic life. The distinction between the sacred and the secular is foreign to the spirit of Hinduism. Every rule of conduct is a part of Dharma. Such being the absorbing notion of religion among the Hindus, they endeavoured to represent this idea in their architecture and sculpture. Nothing was excluded from the sacred precincts of temples, not even the humblest occupation of the daily labourer, not even 372 PAURANIK PERIOD. [BOOK V. sorrows, sufferings, and sins. The universe has ema- nated from the deities to whom the architects dedica- ted their temples, and, as far as their humble skill and untiring industry permitted, they sought to represent the universe on those temples. The proud and the lowly, the rational and the irrational, the animate and the inanimate, yea the whole world with its joys and sorrows, are comprehended in the notion of Hindu religion ; and the Hindu sought to realize that all-em- bracing notion, and to depict the universe on the im- perishable monuments of his industry and his faith ! Digitized by Google CHAPTER IX. ASTRONOMY AND MATHEMATICS. COLEBROOKE was the first European writer who thoroughly enquired into the subject of Hindu Astronomy and Mathematics; and no more careful or impartial writer has written since on the subject, though it has been re- peatedly discussed by later scholars. We make no apology therefore in quoting some remarks which Colebrooke recorded over seventy years ago on Hindu Algebra.