DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0476
452
NOETHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. Book VI.
GtTALIOR.
One temple, existing in the fortress of Uualior, has been already
described under the title of the Jaina Temple (ante, p. 244), though
whether it is Jaina or Yaishnava is by no means easily determined.
At the same place there is another, bearing the not very dignified
name of the Teli ka Mandir, or Oilman's Temple (Woodcut No. 252).
It is a square of 60 ft. each way, with a portico on the east projecting
about 11 ft. Unlike the other temples we have been describing, it
does not terminate upwards in a pyramid, nor is it crowned by an
amalaka, but in a ridge of about 30 ft. in extent, which may originally
have had three anialakas upon it. I cannot help believing that this
form of temple was once more common than we now find it. There
are several examples of it at Mahavellipore (Woodcuts Nos. 181, 182),
evidently copied from a form common among the Buddhists, and
one very beautiful example is found at Bhuvaneswar,1 there called
Kapila Devi, and dedicated to Siva. The Teli ka Mandir was origin-
ally dedicated to Vishnu, but afterwards converted to the worship
of Siva. There is no inscription or any tradition from which its
date can be gathered, but on the whole 1 am inclined to place it
in the 10th or 11th century.
Khajuraho.
As mentioned above, the finest and most extensive group of
temples belonging to the northern or Indo-Aryan style of architec-
ture is that gathered round the great temple at Bhuvaneswar.
They are also the most interesting historically, inasmuch as their
dates extend through five or six centuries, and they alone conse-
quently enable us to bridge over the dark ages of Indian art. From
its remote situation, Orissa seems to have escaped, to a great extent
at least, from the troubles that agitated northern and western India
during the 8th and 9th centuries ; and though from this cause we can
find nothing in Central India to fill up the gap between Chandravati
and (iualior, in Orissa the series is complete, and, if properly ex-
amined and described, would afford a consecutive history of the stj'le
from say 500 to 1100 or 1200 a.d.
Next in interest and extent to the Bhuvaneswar group is that
at Khajuraho,2 in Bundelcund, as before mentioned (p. 245). At
1 A view of this temple will be found
in my' Picturesque Illustrations of Indian
Architecture,' pL 4.
2 We are indebted to Gen. Cunning-
ham for almost all we know about this
place, and it is from his ' Reports' and
photographs that the following account
has been compiled.
NOETHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. Book VI.
GtTALIOR.
One temple, existing in the fortress of Uualior, has been already
described under the title of the Jaina Temple (ante, p. 244), though
whether it is Jaina or Yaishnava is by no means easily determined.
At the same place there is another, bearing the not very dignified
name of the Teli ka Mandir, or Oilman's Temple (Woodcut No. 252).
It is a square of 60 ft. each way, with a portico on the east projecting
about 11 ft. Unlike the other temples we have been describing, it
does not terminate upwards in a pyramid, nor is it crowned by an
amalaka, but in a ridge of about 30 ft. in extent, which may originally
have had three anialakas upon it. I cannot help believing that this
form of temple was once more common than we now find it. There
are several examples of it at Mahavellipore (Woodcuts Nos. 181, 182),
evidently copied from a form common among the Buddhists, and
one very beautiful example is found at Bhuvaneswar,1 there called
Kapila Devi, and dedicated to Siva. The Teli ka Mandir was origin-
ally dedicated to Vishnu, but afterwards converted to the worship
of Siva. There is no inscription or any tradition from which its
date can be gathered, but on the whole 1 am inclined to place it
in the 10th or 11th century.
Khajuraho.
As mentioned above, the finest and most extensive group of
temples belonging to the northern or Indo-Aryan style of architec-
ture is that gathered round the great temple at Bhuvaneswar.
They are also the most interesting historically, inasmuch as their
dates extend through five or six centuries, and they alone conse-
quently enable us to bridge over the dark ages of Indian art. From
its remote situation, Orissa seems to have escaped, to a great extent
at least, from the troubles that agitated northern and western India
during the 8th and 9th centuries ; and though from this cause we can
find nothing in Central India to fill up the gap between Chandravati
and (iualior, in Orissa the series is complete, and, if properly ex-
amined and described, would afford a consecutive history of the stj'le
from say 500 to 1100 or 1200 a.d.
Next in interest and extent to the Bhuvaneswar group is that
at Khajuraho,2 in Bundelcund, as before mentioned (p. 245). At
1 A view of this temple will be found
in my' Picturesque Illustrations of Indian
Architecture,' pL 4.
2 We are indebted to Gen. Cunning-
ham for almost all we know about this
place, and it is from his ' Reports' and
photographs that the following account
has been compiled.