DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0440
416
NORTHERN OR 1NDO-ARYAN STYLE. Book VI.
any important chronological blunders. It is true that the dates of
only two of its temples have been ascertained with tolerable certainty.
The great one at Bhuvaneswar is said to have been erected in or
about a.d. 637, and that at Puri in a.d. 1174, nearly the first and the
last of the series. My impression is that the series may be carried
ba*-k to about the year 500, but in the other direction it can hardly
he extended beyond the year 1200, but within these limits it seems
possible to arrange the sequence of all the temples in the province
without much difficulty, and to ascertain their dates with at least
a fair approximate certainty.1
With the exception of the great temple of Juganat at Puri, all the
buildings described in this chapter were erected under the great
Kesari dynasty, or "Lion line," as Hunter calls them. Few of the
particulars of their history have been recorded, but we know at least
the date of their accession, a.d. 473, and that in a.d. 1131 they were
succeeded by a new dynasty, called Ganga Vansa, the third of whom
was the builder of the great Puri Temple.
As mentioned in a previous part of this work, Orissa was princi-
pally Buddhist, at least from the time of Asoka, B.O. 250, till the Gupta
era, a.d. 319, when all India was distracted by wars connected with
the tooth relic, which was said to have been preserved at Puri—then
in consequence called Danta Pura—till that time. If the invaders
came by sea, as it is said they did, they probably were either Mughs
1 i regret very much being obliged to
send this chapter to press before the
receipt of the second volume of Balm
Kajendra Lala Mittrn's 'Antiquities of
Orissa.' He accompanied a Government
expedition to that province in 1868 as
aroheologist, and being a Brahman and
an excellent Sanscrit scholar, he has had
opportunities of ascertaining facts such as
no one else ever had. Orissa was the
first province I visited in India for the
purposes of antiquarian research, and
like even* one else, I was then quite
unfamiliar with the forms and affinities
of Hindu architecture. Photographs
have enabled me to supply to some ex-
tent the deficiency of my knowledge at
that time ; but unless photographs are
taken by a scientific man for scientific
purposes, they do not supply the place of
local experience. I feel confident that,
on the spot, I could now ascertain the
sequence of the temples with perfect
certainty ; but whether the Babu has
sufficient knowledge for that purpose
remains to lie seen. His first volume
is very learned, and may be very inter-
esting, but it adds little or nothing to
what we already knew of the history of
Orissan architecture
I have seen two plates of plans of
temples intended for the second volume
They are arranged without reference
either to style or dates, so they convey
very little information, and the photo-
graphs prove them to be so incorrect that
no great dependence can be placed upon
them. The text, which I have not seen,
may remedy all this, and I hope will, but
if he had made any great discoveries,
such as the error in the date of the
Black Pagoda, they most probably would
have been hinted at in the first volume,
or have leaked out in some of the Babu's
numerous publications during the last
seven or eight years.
Mr. Hunter, who was in constant com-
munication with the Babu, adds very
little in his work on Orissa to wdiat we
learnt long ago from Stirling's, which up
to this hour remains the classical work
on the province and its antiquities.
NORTHERN OR 1NDO-ARYAN STYLE. Book VI.
any important chronological blunders. It is true that the dates of
only two of its temples have been ascertained with tolerable certainty.
The great one at Bhuvaneswar is said to have been erected in or
about a.d. 637, and that at Puri in a.d. 1174, nearly the first and the
last of the series. My impression is that the series may be carried
ba*-k to about the year 500, but in the other direction it can hardly
he extended beyond the year 1200, but within these limits it seems
possible to arrange the sequence of all the temples in the province
without much difficulty, and to ascertain their dates with at least
a fair approximate certainty.1
With the exception of the great temple of Juganat at Puri, all the
buildings described in this chapter were erected under the great
Kesari dynasty, or "Lion line," as Hunter calls them. Few of the
particulars of their history have been recorded, but we know at least
the date of their accession, a.d. 473, and that in a.d. 1131 they were
succeeded by a new dynasty, called Ganga Vansa, the third of whom
was the builder of the great Puri Temple.
As mentioned in a previous part of this work, Orissa was princi-
pally Buddhist, at least from the time of Asoka, B.O. 250, till the Gupta
era, a.d. 319, when all India was distracted by wars connected with
the tooth relic, which was said to have been preserved at Puri—then
in consequence called Danta Pura—till that time. If the invaders
came by sea, as it is said they did, they probably were either Mughs
1 i regret very much being obliged to
send this chapter to press before the
receipt of the second volume of Balm
Kajendra Lala Mittrn's 'Antiquities of
Orissa.' He accompanied a Government
expedition to that province in 1868 as
aroheologist, and being a Brahman and
an excellent Sanscrit scholar, he has had
opportunities of ascertaining facts such as
no one else ever had. Orissa was the
first province I visited in India for the
purposes of antiquarian research, and
like even* one else, I was then quite
unfamiliar with the forms and affinities
of Hindu architecture. Photographs
have enabled me to supply to some ex-
tent the deficiency of my knowledge at
that time ; but unless photographs are
taken by a scientific man for scientific
purposes, they do not supply the place of
local experience. I feel confident that,
on the spot, I could now ascertain the
sequence of the temples with perfect
certainty ; but whether the Babu has
sufficient knowledge for that purpose
remains to lie seen. His first volume
is very learned, and may be very inter-
esting, but it adds little or nothing to
what we already knew of the history of
Orissan architecture
I have seen two plates of plans of
temples intended for the second volume
They are arranged without reference
either to style or dates, so they convey
very little information, and the photo-
graphs prove them to be so incorrect that
no great dependence can be placed upon
them. The text, which I have not seen,
may remedy all this, and I hope will, but
if he had made any great discoveries,
such as the error in the date of the
Black Pagoda, they most probably would
have been hinted at in the first volume,
or have leaked out in some of the Babu's
numerous publications during the last
seven or eight years.
Mr. Hunter, who was in constant com-
munication with the Babu, adds very
little in his work on Orissa to wdiat we
learnt long ago from Stirling's, which up
to this hour remains the classical work
on the province and its antiquities.