DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0445
Chap. II.
GREAT TEMPLE AT BHUVANESWAK.
421
pleasing to the European eye; but when once the eye is accustomed
to it, it has a singularly solemn and
pleasing aspect. It is a solid, and would
be a plain square tower, but for the
slight curve at the top, which takes on'
the hardness of the outline and intro-
duces pleasingly the circular crowning
object (Woodcut No. 233). As compared
with that at Tanjore (Woodcut No. 191),
it certainly is by far the finer design
of the two. In plan the southern ex-
ample is the larger, being 82 ft. square.
This one is only 66 ft.1 from angle to
angle, though it is 75 ft. across the
central projection. Their height is
nearly the same, both of them being
over 180 ft., but the upper part of the
northern tower is so much more solid,
that the cubic contents of the two are
probably not very different. Besides,
however, greater beauty in form, the
northern example excels the other im-
measurably in the fact that it is wholly
in stone from the base to the apex, and
—what, unfortunately, no woodcut can
show—every inch of the surface is
covered with carving in the most ela-
borate manner. It is not only the divi-
sions of the courses, the roll-mouldings
on the angles, or the breaks on the face
of the tower : these are sufficient to re-
lieve its flatness, and with any other
people they would be deemed suffi-
cient; but everj' individual stone in
the tower has a pattern carved upon it.
not so as to break its outline, but suffi-
cient to relieve any idea of monotony.
It is, perhaps, not an exaggeration to
say that if it would take a sum—say
a lakh of rupees or pounds—to erect
such a building as this, it would take
U
J
J
J
- X
212. Plan of Great Teinpleat Blmvanes.
war. (Compiled partly from Plan in
liabu R/ijendra's work, Imt corrected
from Photographs. (Scale 50 ft. tol in.)
1 This and the dimensions in plan
generally are taken from a table in Babu
Hnjendra's work. p. 41. 1 am afraid
they are only round numbers, and
certainly incorrect, but they suffice for
comparison.
GREAT TEMPLE AT BHUVANESWAK.
421
pleasing to the European eye; but when once the eye is accustomed
to it, it has a singularly solemn and
pleasing aspect. It is a solid, and would
be a plain square tower, but for the
slight curve at the top, which takes on'
the hardness of the outline and intro-
duces pleasingly the circular crowning
object (Woodcut No. 233). As compared
with that at Tanjore (Woodcut No. 191),
it certainly is by far the finer design
of the two. In plan the southern ex-
ample is the larger, being 82 ft. square.
This one is only 66 ft.1 from angle to
angle, though it is 75 ft. across the
central projection. Their height is
nearly the same, both of them being
over 180 ft., but the upper part of the
northern tower is so much more solid,
that the cubic contents of the two are
probably not very different. Besides,
however, greater beauty in form, the
northern example excels the other im-
measurably in the fact that it is wholly
in stone from the base to the apex, and
—what, unfortunately, no woodcut can
show—every inch of the surface is
covered with carving in the most ela-
borate manner. It is not only the divi-
sions of the courses, the roll-mouldings
on the angles, or the breaks on the face
of the tower : these are sufficient to re-
lieve its flatness, and with any other
people they would be deemed suffi-
cient; but everj' individual stone in
the tower has a pattern carved upon it.
not so as to break its outline, but suffi-
cient to relieve any idea of monotony.
It is, perhaps, not an exaggeration to
say that if it would take a sum—say
a lakh of rupees or pounds—to erect
such a building as this, it would take
U
J
J
J
- X
212. Plan of Great Teinpleat Blmvanes.
war. (Compiled partly from Plan in
liabu R/ijendra's work, Imt corrected
from Photographs. (Scale 50 ft. tol in.)
1 This and the dimensions in plan
generally are taken from a table in Babu
Hnjendra's work. p. 41. 1 am afraid
they are only round numbers, and
certainly incorrect, but they suffice for
comparison.