History of Indian and Eastern ArchitectureFergusson, James
History
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture
Fergusson, James
Architecture -- India; Architecture, Asian
Besides the greater temples, there are several varieties of smaller ones
which seem peculiar to the style--such, for instance, as the
five-pillared shrine at Gurusankerry (Woodcut No. 153). Four-pillared
pavilions are not uncommon in front of Hindu temples in the south. There
is a very famous one, for instance, on the opposite shore of India at
Mahavellipore, but not one, that I know of, with five pillars, or with
access to the upper chambers. There are three of these upper chambers in
this instance--the two lower now closed, but apparently originally open;
but to what use they were devoted, or what purpose they were intended to
subserve, is by no means clear. At the base of the temple are a number
of stones bearing images of serpents; seven or eight are now there, and
the serpents themselves are some with one, others three, five, or seven
heads. It may be that this is a serpent temple, and that the living form
of this strange divinity, when alive, inhabited the upper storey. But
it may also be, that the stones were brought there in modern times, so
that till some one on the spot will take the trouble to ascertain the
facts of the case, it is not safe to speculate regarding them.
[Illustration: 154. Tombs of Priests, Moodbidri. (From a Photograph.)]
A third feature, even more characteristic of the style, is found in the
tombs of the priests, a large number of which are found in the
neighbourhood of Moodbidri. Three of these are illustrated in the
annexed Woodcut (No. 154). They vary much in size and magnificence, some
being from three to five or seven storeys in height, but they are not,
like the storeys of Dravidian temples, ornamented with simulated cells
and finishing with domical roofs. The division of each storey is a
sloping roof, like those of the pagodas at Katmandhu, and in China or
Thibet. In India they are quite anomalous. In the first place, no tombs
of priests are known to exist anywhere else, and their forms, too, are
quite unlike any other building now known to be standing in any other
part of India.
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