Indian Antiquary Vol 44

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 24

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(JANUARY, 1915.
Mr. Hargreaves, Officiating Superintendent of Hindu and Buddhist Monumenta, Northern Circle of the Archæological Department. His visit, was, I venture to say, largely induced by the photographs and details, which my visit in April enabled me to forward to him The present note, with its photographs, is the result of my April visit, followed by a second visit in November, which was made with the object of drawing up a rough plan and of supplementing the photographs, previously taken by me. I am indebted for certain information to Mr. Hargreaves and also to Mr. Vincent Smith, author of Early History of India and of History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, with whom I have been in correspondence.
The position of the temple on the summit of a sand stone range of hills, here some 2500 feet in elevation, is one commanding fine vistas of the snow capped Dhaula Dhar to the north-east and of the Beas valley to the west. While by path only some 8 miles from the small, but ancient town of Haripur, visited by Vigne in 1839, and some 12 miles from the historical Kot Kângrâ, rough inter-hamlet hill tracks provide the solo access to it. Its inaccessibility explains why it has escaped notice for so long. On the approach from Haripur, the temple first comes into view, when the visitor surmounts the smaller parallel ridge to the south-west. In the distance the temple can scarcely be distinguished from the adjacent rock, as on this side it is sadly weather worn, if indeed it was ever quite completed. From nearer, the deep outs that separate each end of the temple from the rest of the sandstone ridge, some of the bikharas and doorways become visible. But it is not till one bas passed through the south-east cut and viewed the temple from the other side that the true character and size of the temple begin to manifest themselves. Even thon at first it seems an extravagant and confused mass of spires, doorways and ornament. The perfect symmetry of the design, all centering in the one supreme spire, immediately over the small main cella, which together form the vimana, can only be realised after & careful examination of each part in relation to the other. This difficulty is chiefly due to the destruction of several of the spires, the blocking up of the almost perfect east corner by mean hute, and the intruding trees and vegetation, that in places are helping to disintegrate the temple itself.
If the visitor stands by the Garuda (photo. No. 2) facing the large door to the colla, (photo. No. 3), on each side of him are the ruinous remains of two miniature cruciform shrines. Beyond them, right and left, in a straight line and in front of the corner, were two larger detached outflanking bikhara shrines, resembling spires of the main temple. That to the right is still partly extant, but its fellow to the east is represented only by remains of its base. The survivor contains an exceptionally fire sculptured lintel on its outsido face. (See photos. Nos. 5 and 6). Behind the visitor's back is the large rectangular tank, hollowed out of the rock, shown in the foreground of photo. No. 1. Advancing towards the cells, one enters a square court, immediately in front of the door of the colla. It is now open to the sky, but was once probably covered by & portioo or mandapa, supported on carved pillars, the remains of three of which are still to be seen the base of one in situ in the south corner of the court (Plan, B), part of another, or perhaps of the first, supporting the later Garuda (Plan, A and photo. No. 2.), and part of a third recumbent on the ground and defaced with rough