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KATHAVATE'S INTRODUCTION to the first edition of KİRTIKAUMUDI
Kirtikaumudi, like Vikramankadevacharita and Sriharshacharita, is a Panegyric written by a poet on his patron. In this instance the patron is not a king, but the the minister of a king. In order to interest the reader in the poem, it is enough to mention that it was the hero of this panegyric and his brother who erected the justly famed Jaina temples on Mount Abu. If a sentimental traveller, while winding his way to the temples through the mountain, is held enchanted by the huge rocks sending into the skies their fantastic summits; if the thick forest, enriched by the fragrant Champa, the shady Jambu loaded with luscious fruit, the tall Pāngārā covered with a dazzling blossom, the delicious jasmine and the delicate Sirisha, and made sonorous by endless varieties of the notes of birds charms the senses; if majestic nature subdues his heart by pleasing grandeur on the way; on entering these lovely edifices he is compelled to admit that art, Nature's daughter, has charms which are her own. No better description of these triumphs of art can be conceived than the following:
"The principal feature in each is the usual octagonal dome, forming a vestibule to the adytum, wherein the objects of worship are enshrined and around which is a columned peristyle, roofed with numerous domes. The whole edifice is of white marble, and the sculptured ornaments with which every part of the surface is covered, are so finely chiselled, as to suggest the idea that they have been moulded of wax, the semi-transparent edges almost realizing, by their hardly perceptible thickness, the mathematician's definition of a line. The pendant which hangs from the centre of the dome of the temple of Tejpal is particularly remarkable, and rivets the attention of every visitor. As Colonel Tod justly remarks, the delineation of it defies the pen, and would tax to the utmost the pencil of the most patient artist; and he is secure in asserting that no ornament of the most florid style of Gothic architecture can be compared with it in richness.' It appears like a cluster of the half-disclosed lotus, whose cups are so thin, so transparent, and so accurately wrought, that it fixes the eye in admiration. The sculpture of these temples does not, however, confine itself to the representation of inanimate natural objects, it exercises itself also upon the scenes of domestic life, the labours of navigation and commerce, and the struggles of the battle-field; and it may be safely asserted that the student of antiquities, who should devote sufficient attention to these basreliefs, would be amply repaid by a large increase of knowledge regarding many interesting points in the manners and customs of mediaeval India."- Forbes' Rasmala,
The present account of those great men, to whose liberality India is indebted for these artistic structures, is further interesting as being a contemporary record. Indeed, if commemoration of events of the time had been the author's aim
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