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FEB. 2, 1872.]
THE HALABID TEMPLE.
. 41
The latest date assigned to the birth of Ráma prophesying that his race would soon be extinct nuja Acharyk is A. D. 1025. The final Muham- and his capital fall into ruins. She, however, madan con quest of the Belála capital was in out of gratitude for the kindness shown her by 1826. In order that these statements might the potter, spared the street in which he lived. agree, we should be compelled to allow that Her prophesy was soon fulfilled. A Muhamthe great Vaishnava reformer lived for a period madan invasion shortly afterwards took place; of 300 years. Nowhere in the whole of Hala- the whole of the city with the exception of one bid do we find a vestige of its having been at street was laid in ruins. To this day the street any time the seat of the Vaighnava religion. which was saved, goes by the name of the The temples are either Jaina bastis or dedicated Potter's Street. to Shiva. It is therefore clear that they were The old city was surrounded by an outer wall erected by kings professing one of these two having nine gates, and close upon 5 miles in religions, and the date of their building cannot length. The stones are cyclopean and were be later than 1025 A. D. How long they were trimmed to fit each other. No mortar was erected before, it is impossible now to determine, employed. From a comparison of this work for the history of the builders is buried under with the temples, it is conjectured that the walls the, dust of bye-gone ages, and has been for- are the work of a prior and different race. The gotten in the lapse of centuries. The inscrip- popular idea that these walls once enclosed
tions on the walls of the Hoisela Ishwara, or 770 temples of various kinds, is supported by . larger temple, prove it must have been in ex- the immense number of broken shafts, pillars,
istence at a time when the Norman conquest columns, capitals and carvings of every sort, of England was a hardly-established fact, and used in forming the band of a large neighbourlong before many of England's grandest Cathe- ing tank. drals were thought of.
Of all these temples only five now remain, viz., Tradition - people's history-has preserved the Kait Ishwara, Hoisela Ishwara, and three for us the story connected with the capital. In Jaina bastis. the reign of the ninth king it happened that his Time, assisted by a banian tree, whose roots favourite concubine fell greatly in love with his are embedded in its Vimana (or pyramidal tower nephews, who are said to have been remarkably over the spot where the god or his emblem is handsome men. Each in his turn treated all her enthroned) is fast reducing the Kait Ishwara to advances and overtures with contempt. Her a shapeless mound. In its pristine state this love now changed to hate. In order to be re- temple must have been a noble specimen of its venged, she did not scruple to charge the architect's skill. The carvings, which adorned nephews with having made overtures to her. its walls, though small when compared with Furious on hearing this, the king ordered those of the larger temple, display a fineness of them to be impaled, and their bodies, like those detail in execution which might be equalled but of common thieves, exposed at the city gates. could scarcely be surpassed. The gate to the south of the Jaina bastis is Mr. Fergusson, in his History of Architecpointed out as being the one where this was ture, when treating of the Chalukya style, has done, Hearing what had happened, their unfor- made the following remarks with regard to tunate mother ran to the palace to demand Hoisela Ishwara, or larger témple : justice. Not only was she refused admittance, " It (the Kait Ishwara) is however gurpassed but the inhabitants of the city were commanded in size and magnificence by its neighbour, the not to give her assistance of any sort or kind. great temple, which, taking it altogether, is Weary and worn, the unfortunate woman wan- perhaps the building on which the advocate dered from street to street, only to find that of Hindu architecture would desire to take every door was closed against her, and every his stand. Unfortunately it was never finished. helping hand withheld. At length & poor ......... The general arrangement of the building potter took compassion upon the bereaved mother, is...... a double temple....... Such double temples drew her aside, and supplied her with the refresh- are by no means uncommon in India, but the two ment of which she was so much in want. 'Re- sanctuaries usually face each other, and have freshed, she tarned round and cursed the king, the porch between them. The dimensions may
• History er Architecture, vol. IL Pp. 614-618.
