History of Indian and Eastern ArchitectureFergusson, James
History
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture
Fergusson, James
Architecture -- India; Architecture, Asian
Architecturally, there is no difficulty in defining the limits of the
Dasyu province: wherever a square tower-like temple exists with a
perpendicular base, but a curvilinear outline above, such as that shown
in the woodcut on the following page, there we may feel certain of the
existence, past or present, of a people of Dasyu extraction, retaining
their purity very nearly in the direct ratio to the number of these
temples found in the district. Were it not consequently for the
difficulty of introducing new names and obtaining acceptance to what is
unfamiliar, the proper names for the style prevailing in northern India
would be Dasyu style, instead of Indo-Aryan or Dasyu-Aryan which I have
felt constrained to adopt. No one can accuse the pure Aryans of
introducing this form in India, or of building temples at all, or of
worshipping images of Siva or Vishnu, with which these temples are
filled, and they consequently have little title to confer their name on
the style. The Aryans had, however, become so impure in blood before
these temples were erected, and were so mixed up with the Dasyus, and
had so influenced their religion and the arts, that it may be better to
retain a name which sounds familiar, and does not too sharply prejudge
the question. Be this as it may, one thing seems tolerably clear, that
the regions occupied by the Aryans in India were conterminous with those
of the Dasyus, or, in other words, that the Aryans conquered the whole
of the aboriginal or native tribes who occupied the plains of northern
India, and ruled over them to such an extent as materially to influence
their religion and their arts, and also very materially to modify even
their language. So much so, indeed, that after some four or five
thousand years of domination we should not be surprised if we have some
difficulty in recovering traces of the original population, and could
probably not do so, if some fragments of the people had not sought
refuge in the hills on the north and south of the great Gangetic plain,
and there have remained fossilised, or at least sufficiently permanent
for purposes of investigation.
[Illustration: Hindu Temple, Bancorah.]
SISUNAGA DYNASTY, B.C. 691 TO 325.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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