DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27192#0143
Chap. IJ.
CONCLUSION.
IX5
assume that it belongs to the later part of the nth or to the
12th century.1
Conclusion.
The above may be considered as a somewhat meagre account
of one of the most complete and interesting styles of Indian
architecture. It would, however, be impossible to do it justice
without an amount of illustration incompatible with the scope
of this work, and with details drawn on a larger scale than its
pages admit of.2
An attempted classification, though merely tentative, has on
several occasions been made in order to attract attention to the
subject, in hopes that some one with opportunities and know-
ledge might examine and revise it. With only such photographs
as are available to depend upon, we can come to no satisfactory
conclusions : at best they give only a partial, literally one-sided
view of a building, and to ascertain its age we ought to be able
to look all round it, and make ourselves familiar with its locality
and surroundings. The thing will not be satisfactorily done till
some one visits Orissa who has sufficient knowledge of the
principles of archaeology to arrange the temples in a chrono-
metric scale ; and this should not be difficult, the buildings are
so uniform in character, and their architects expressed so simply
and unaffectedly the feelings and art of their age.
A good monograph of the Orissan style would convey a
more correct idea of what Indian art really is than a similar
account of any other style we are acquainted with in India.
From the erection of the temples of Parai'urame^war and
others, perhaps in the 7th century, to that of Jagannath at
Puri, A.D. 1100, the style steadily progresses without admixture
of foreign elements, while the examples are so numerous that
one might be found for every fifty years of the period, and we
might thus have a chronometric scale of Hindu art during
these centuries that would be invaluable for application to
other places or styles. It is also in Orissa and Kalinga, if
anywhere, that we may hope to find the incunabula that will
explain much that is now mysterious in the forms of the
temples and the origin of many parts of their ornamentation.
1 The editor is indebted to Babu
Monmohan Chakravarti, B.A., for valu-
able information bearing on the contents
of this chapter and of that on the Orissa
caves, as also for the use of photographs
and notes on these temples which have
formed the basis of the above account.
2 Thirty years ago it was hoped that
Rajendralal Mitra’s work would, to
some extent at least, have supplied the I
deficiency of the first draft of this outline ;
but this expectation was not realised by
its publication in 1880. With a moderate
knowledge of the science of archaeology
and accuracy of observation it would not
have been very difficult to arrange the
temples in some sort of approximate
sequence determined by careful study of
the style. Nor has much information in
i this direction been added since.
CONCLUSION.
IX5
assume that it belongs to the later part of the nth or to the
12th century.1
Conclusion.
The above may be considered as a somewhat meagre account
of one of the most complete and interesting styles of Indian
architecture. It would, however, be impossible to do it justice
without an amount of illustration incompatible with the scope
of this work, and with details drawn on a larger scale than its
pages admit of.2
An attempted classification, though merely tentative, has on
several occasions been made in order to attract attention to the
subject, in hopes that some one with opportunities and know-
ledge might examine and revise it. With only such photographs
as are available to depend upon, we can come to no satisfactory
conclusions : at best they give only a partial, literally one-sided
view of a building, and to ascertain its age we ought to be able
to look all round it, and make ourselves familiar with its locality
and surroundings. The thing will not be satisfactorily done till
some one visits Orissa who has sufficient knowledge of the
principles of archaeology to arrange the temples in a chrono-
metric scale ; and this should not be difficult, the buildings are
so uniform in character, and their architects expressed so simply
and unaffectedly the feelings and art of their age.
A good monograph of the Orissan style would convey a
more correct idea of what Indian art really is than a similar
account of any other style we are acquainted with in India.
From the erection of the temples of Parai'urame^war and
others, perhaps in the 7th century, to that of Jagannath at
Puri, A.D. 1100, the style steadily progresses without admixture
of foreign elements, while the examples are so numerous that
one might be found for every fifty years of the period, and we
might thus have a chronometric scale of Hindu art during
these centuries that would be invaluable for application to
other places or styles. It is also in Orissa and Kalinga, if
anywhere, that we may hope to find the incunabula that will
explain much that is now mysterious in the forms of the
temples and the origin of many parts of their ornamentation.
1 The editor is indebted to Babu
Monmohan Chakravarti, B.A., for valu-
able information bearing on the contents
of this chapter and of that on the Orissa
caves, as also for the use of photographs
and notes on these temples which have
formed the basis of the above account.
2 Thirty years ago it was hoped that
Rajendralal Mitra’s work would, to
some extent at least, have supplied the I
deficiency of the first draft of this outline ;
but this expectation was not realised by
its publication in 1880. With a moderate
knowledge of the science of archaeology
and accuracy of observation it would not
have been very difficult to arrange the
temples in some sort of approximate
sequence determined by careful study of
the style. Nor has much information in
i this direction been added since.