DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0434
410
NORTHERN OR IN DO-ARYAN STYLE.
Book VI.
was to gain ready-made materials for their mosques, and it was not
till the time of Aurungzebe that any of their monarcha felt himself
sufficiently powerful or was so bigoted as to dare the power and
enmity of the Brahmans of Benares, by erecting a mosque on the site
of one of the most sacred temples as an insult and a defiance to
the Hindus. Even then, had such a temple as the great one at
Bhuvaneswar ever existed in Benares, every stone of which, from the
ground to the kullus, is covered with carving, it seems impossible
that all these carved stones should be hid away and not one now to
be found. I am myself personally tolerably familiar with Benares,
and the conviction such knowledge as I have forces on my mind is,
that though the city was the earliest and most important settlement
of the Vedic Brahmans—the sacred city of the Aryan Hindus from
the remotest ages—yet just from that cause it had fewer temples than
any of the cities inhabited by less pure races. What few fragments
remain are Buddhist or Jaina, and we must consequently ascribe the
absence of anything really ancient more to the non-building instincts of
the Brahmanical Aryans than the iconoclastic bigotry of the Moslems.
All this will be clearer as we proceed; but meanwhile it may be
well to point to one or two other instances of this. The rock at
Gualior was one of the earliest conquests of the Moslems, and they
held it more or less directly for five centuries. They built palaces
and mosques within its precincts, yet the most conspicuous objects
on the hill are Hindu temples, that were erected before they obtained
possession of it. In like manner Chittore was thrice besieged and
thrice sacked by the Mahomedans, but its numerous buildings are
intact, and I do not recollect observing a single instance of wanton
destruction in the place. An even more striking instance is found
at Ellora. Though Aurungzebe, the most bigoted of his race, built
his capital in its neighbourhood, and lies buried within sight of the
eaves, there is no proof that he or any of his race were the authors
of any of the damage that has been done to the idols there. Practi-
cally, they are intact, or have only received such mutilation as is
easily accounted for from other causes.
It would be tedious to attempt it, but, fortunately, it is nut
necessary for our present purposes to go into the whole evidence ; but
I may state that the impression I have derived from such attention
as I have been able to give to the subject is, that the absence of old
temples in northern India is more owing to ethnographic than to
religious causes. It seems more probable that they never existed
than that they were destroyed. No temples are mentioned in the
Vedas or the older Indian writings, and none were required for the
simple quasi-domestic rites of their worship ; and so long as they
remained pure no temples were built. On the other hand, it appears
as if between the fall of Buddhism and the advent of the Moslems
NORTHERN OR IN DO-ARYAN STYLE.
Book VI.
was to gain ready-made materials for their mosques, and it was not
till the time of Aurungzebe that any of their monarcha felt himself
sufficiently powerful or was so bigoted as to dare the power and
enmity of the Brahmans of Benares, by erecting a mosque on the site
of one of the most sacred temples as an insult and a defiance to
the Hindus. Even then, had such a temple as the great one at
Bhuvaneswar ever existed in Benares, every stone of which, from the
ground to the kullus, is covered with carving, it seems impossible
that all these carved stones should be hid away and not one now to
be found. I am myself personally tolerably familiar with Benares,
and the conviction such knowledge as I have forces on my mind is,
that though the city was the earliest and most important settlement
of the Vedic Brahmans—the sacred city of the Aryan Hindus from
the remotest ages—yet just from that cause it had fewer temples than
any of the cities inhabited by less pure races. What few fragments
remain are Buddhist or Jaina, and we must consequently ascribe the
absence of anything really ancient more to the non-building instincts of
the Brahmanical Aryans than the iconoclastic bigotry of the Moslems.
All this will be clearer as we proceed; but meanwhile it may be
well to point to one or two other instances of this. The rock at
Gualior was one of the earliest conquests of the Moslems, and they
held it more or less directly for five centuries. They built palaces
and mosques within its precincts, yet the most conspicuous objects
on the hill are Hindu temples, that were erected before they obtained
possession of it. In like manner Chittore was thrice besieged and
thrice sacked by the Mahomedans, but its numerous buildings are
intact, and I do not recollect observing a single instance of wanton
destruction in the place. An even more striking instance is found
at Ellora. Though Aurungzebe, the most bigoted of his race, built
his capital in its neighbourhood, and lies buried within sight of the
eaves, there is no proof that he or any of his race were the authors
of any of the damage that has been done to the idols there. Practi-
cally, they are intact, or have only received such mutilation as is
easily accounted for from other causes.
It would be tedious to attempt it, but, fortunately, it is nut
necessary for our present purposes to go into the whole evidence ; but
I may state that the impression I have derived from such attention
as I have been able to give to the subject is, that the absence of old
temples in northern India is more owing to ethnographic than to
religious causes. It seems more probable that they never existed
than that they were destroyed. No temples are mentioned in the
Vedas or the older Indian writings, and none were required for the
simple quasi-domestic rites of their worship ; and so long as they
remained pure no temples were built. On the other hand, it appears
as if between the fall of Buddhism and the advent of the Moslems