DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0137
GANESA RATHA. 115
also continue to be the ornaments used in similar situations to the
present day. The roof itself is pointed, both internally and exter-
nally, in a manner entirely suitable to the wooden construction from
which it is copied. It is true that in most of the western caves the
internal form of these roofs is of a circular section, but externally
there always is and must have been a ridge, to throw off the rain
water, so as to make the external form an ogee, and so it is always
represented. In some instances, as the Son Bhandar cave at Rajgir
(woodcut No. 7) and at Sita Marhi (woodcut No. 11), the internal
form was also pointed, and so I fancy it generally was in the
wooden structures from which these Raths were copied.
Like all the many storeyed buildings of this class with which we
are acquainted, this temple diminishes upwards in a pyramidal form,
the offsets being marked by ranges of small simulated cells, such as
no doubt existed in Buddhist viharas on a large scale, and were thus
practically the cells in which the monks resided, or at least slept.
In this instance they are more siibdued than is usually the case, but
throughout the whole range of Dravidian architecture, to the present
clay, they form the most universal and most characteristic feature of
the style.
The pillars in the porch of this temple are of a singularly elegant
form, but so very little removed from their wooden prototypes as
to be very unsuited for the position they here occupy in monolithic
architecture. Their capitals, though much more slender, are of the
Elephanta type, and their bases are formed by yalis or lions, which
are clearly derived from some wooden originals, and are singularly
unlike any lithic form (woodcut No. 29). They are, however, the
most characteristic features of the architecture of the place, being
almost universal at Mahavallipur, but not found anywhere else, that
I know of.
On each side of the entrance there is a dwarpala or porter, and
on the back wall of the verandah is an inscription in a long florid
character, dedicated to Siva, and stating that the work was executed
»y a king Jayarana Stamba,1 but his name occurs nowhere else, and
we can only guess his age from the form of the alphabet in which
it is written, which, as before stated, is certainly not far removed
from the year 700.
ihe image in the small shrine inside is not cut in the rock, but of
Trans. B. A, S., vol. ii.p. 266, Plate 14, Cam pp. 57 ami 201.
also continue to be the ornaments used in similar situations to the
present day. The roof itself is pointed, both internally and exter-
nally, in a manner entirely suitable to the wooden construction from
which it is copied. It is true that in most of the western caves the
internal form of these roofs is of a circular section, but externally
there always is and must have been a ridge, to throw off the rain
water, so as to make the external form an ogee, and so it is always
represented. In some instances, as the Son Bhandar cave at Rajgir
(woodcut No. 7) and at Sita Marhi (woodcut No. 11), the internal
form was also pointed, and so I fancy it generally was in the
wooden structures from which these Raths were copied.
Like all the many storeyed buildings of this class with which we
are acquainted, this temple diminishes upwards in a pyramidal form,
the offsets being marked by ranges of small simulated cells, such as
no doubt existed in Buddhist viharas on a large scale, and were thus
practically the cells in which the monks resided, or at least slept.
In this instance they are more siibdued than is usually the case, but
throughout the whole range of Dravidian architecture, to the present
clay, they form the most universal and most characteristic feature of
the style.
The pillars in the porch of this temple are of a singularly elegant
form, but so very little removed from their wooden prototypes as
to be very unsuited for the position they here occupy in monolithic
architecture. Their capitals, though much more slender, are of the
Elephanta type, and their bases are formed by yalis or lions, which
are clearly derived from some wooden originals, and are singularly
unlike any lithic form (woodcut No. 29). They are, however, the
most characteristic features of the architecture of the place, being
almost universal at Mahavallipur, but not found anywhere else, that
I know of.
On each side of the entrance there is a dwarpala or porter, and
on the back wall of the verandah is an inscription in a long florid
character, dedicated to Siva, and stating that the work was executed
»y a king Jayarana Stamba,1 but his name occurs nowhere else, and
we can only guess his age from the form of the alphabet in which
it is written, which, as before stated, is certainly not far removed
from the year 700.
ihe image in the small shrine inside is not cut in the rock, but of
Trans. B. A, S., vol. ii.p. 266, Plate 14, Cam pp. 57 ami 201.