Old Bramhi Inscriptions In Udaygiri And Khandagiri

SR No.: 020516
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Benimadhab Barua
Publisher: University of Calcutta
Publication Year: 1929
Total Pages: 354
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

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NOTES
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employed, pokkharaņi in the sense of small tank need not be separately mentioned. The Hāthi-Gumphā expression savúyāna, interpreted in the sense of all gardens or all kinds of garden, may be said to include in it both ārāma (park) and upavana (grove). As regards vīthi and catara, it is not unlikely that some term corresponding to the Pāli catukkasinghātaka meaning cross roads bas vanished with the missing words preceding vīthi. Anyhow, where vithi in the general sense of road is employed, catukka-singhātaka in the sense of cross-roart need not be separately mentioned. And so as to the varieties of nivesana-sihara.
For details of the plans of Indian cities, the reader is referred to Dr. B. B. Dutt's “ Town-planning in Ancient India.” As for the technical architectural significance of the above terms, Dr. P. K. Acharya's "Dictionary of Hindu Architecture” is sure to prove to be the best help. It will be evident from Dr. Acharya's quotations that gopuras in the sense of gate-houses or gate-towers were not peculiar to religious edifices; but these formed the paraphernalia of religious temples, as well as of resi. dential buildings. It is equally manifest from Dr. Acharya's article on Prāsāda that the Great-victory-palace as a literal rendering of Mahā. vijaya-pāsāda in Khāravela's inscription does not bring out the technical architectural significance of the term. The buildings of the Vijaya class were all two-storeyed. His quotations from the literary texts and the inscriptions make it clear that sihara or sikhara as a tower or turret was as much a crowning construction of a spire temple as that of a palatial building. Nevertheless, the terms gopurāni and siharāni, as used in the twelfth year's record of Khāravela's reign, would seem to be associated with certain religious temples within the city of Kalioga.
As for the existence of temples dedicated to various deities, we have to look just into the concluding paragraph of the Hāthi-Gumphā inscription (I. 16) in which Khāravela has been praised as sava-deváyatanasamkāra-kāraka, " the repairer of all abodes of the gods.” Devayatana is a technical term, the significance of which may be made clear from Dr. Acharya's quotations sub voce--Āyatana, Devayatana and Devālaya. It is not difficult to understand that the so-called abodes of the gods' were in reality nothing but the Hindu shrines which stood in the name of different deities or the Hindu temples in which the images of different gods, demi-gods, goddesses and demi-goddesses were enshrined for worship by the people. These shrines and temples were to be located, as Dr. Dutt's book will show, in every Indian city. We shall entirely miss the force of sava (all) in the expression sava-devd yatana, “all abodes of the
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