Indian Art and Letters

Author(s): India Society
Publisher: India Society

Page 71

Pra Vihān (Vihara) feet a sheer drop of 2,300 feet (Pl. XI.). This photograph was taken from the other (left) side, where the temple comes right up to the edge of the precipice.
The main building on the summit is in the shape of a double temple with a wall (pierced, of course, with a gateway) between the two halves. The inner courtyards contain galleries and a number of buildings, some still in good condition (Pl. X.), some in utter ruin, but it would take too much space to describe them in detail here. Outside the main building there is a subsidiary building both to right and left, that on the left containing four baths sunk into the floor.
From the first step of the grand staircase to the brink of the precipice is exactly half a mile.
It is not possible for me to describe to you the magnitude or the simple grandeur of this work, or to attempt to inspire you with the glorious feeling of mastery that the creator of it must have experienced in the achievement of his conception. One can almost see the Priest-King stretching out his arms to the four winds as he stands on the cliff's edge. How great, how transcendent the spiritual feeling in a man to wish to build such a temple to his Most High Well might one cry, “In excelsis gloria”!
atter stillness now-even the birds seem to have forsaken the spot. The thick jungle but a few yards away on either side. The haunting air of mystery, as if one were indeed prying into another's secrets, and hidden eyes were watching you.
There this monument has stood, bravely defying the elements for a thousand years and more, and, even if it has been compelled to succumb in part, there is still enough and more than enough left today to fire the imagination of the sensitive soul.
The temple, which is now in French territory, is said to have been built in the reign of the Khmer Emperor, Indravarman, towards the close of the ninth century, and to mark the break between primitive Khmer architecture and that of the classic period. It is obviously a Brahmin temple, as there is no sign of Buddhist influence to be seen anywhere. Only one statue was found, a broken, headless, kneeling figure, possibly in the form of the famous so-called Leper King at Angkor.
I am not attempting to analyze the architecture of the temple in detail, as that must be left to more competent hands than mine, but one cannot help noticing in some of the gable-ends, as in Pl. VII., a certain possible Chinese influence, which does not appear at all in the later classic style.
It is clear that a thousand years ago the surrounding district must have been a very populous one to have provided labour for such a stupendous work. NEW SERIES. VOL. VIII., NO. 2.
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