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YASASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
says: 'though small they are gems of art in their own humble way. RD. Banerjea says: The decorative motifs and the plastic art of the three temples at Baudh are certainly superior to and older than the great Lingarāja-AnantaVasudeva group at Bhuvanesvara.' A peculiarity of the three temples in Baudh Town is that they have no Mandapa or Jagamohana, as it is called in Orissa, its place being taken by a porch over the entrance. Unfortunately the porch still exists only in one of the temples. Another peculiarity is that in plan the three temples are eight-rayed stars, and the arghapattas of the Lingas are also similar. The Baudh temples are no doubt older than the Lingarāja group at Bhuvanesvara, specially because the large Jagamohana had not yet come into vogue.
Khiching likewise was a prominent centre of Saiva worship. It is about ninety miles from Bāripada, the present capital of Mayurbhanj, and the site represents the ruins of a large ancient city, which was the home of a people much more civilized than the present aboriginal inhabitants with a sprinkling of Oriya nationals. The principal shrine was that of Cāmuşdā known as Kiñcakeśvari; and the Siva temples that have survived are the Kutaitundi or Nilakantheśvara and the Candrasekhara which is still intact. The Saiva sculptures discovered at Khiching (Umā-Maheśvara, the bust of Siva etc.) bear testimony to the influence of the Saiva cult in the area dominated by the culture of Khiching. The architecture of the three Siva temples in Baudh Town and those at Khiching is believed to represent an intermediate stage between such early specimens as the Parasurameśvara and the Mukteśvara at Bhuvaneśvara and the twin temples at Gandharādi and the next phase of Orissan art as we find it in the temples of Lingarāja, Brahmesvara and Anantavāsudeva at Bhuvanesvara. The Candrasekhara temple at Khiching has accordingly been assigned to about 900 A. D. A peculiarity of the temples at Khiching, as in the case of the three temples at Baudh, is that they are without any Mandapa or Jagamohana. As a matter of fact, there are certain temples at Bhuvaneśvara also, for instance, the Bhāskareśvara, which have no Jagamohana. Some of them are believed to be older than the great temple of Lingarāja.
Most of the early Hindu temples in Orissa are thus dedicated to Siva. The Parasurāmeśvara at Bhuvaneśvara is the earliest. The Gandharādi temples, although one of them is dedicated to Vişnu, come next; and the Mukteśvara at Bhuvaneśvara is placed at the end of the early period. All these edifices are characterized by spires or sikharas of which the curvature is much less pronounced than that of the sikharas of later temples; and in this respect they belong to the same category as such early temples in other parts of India as the later Gupta temple at Nachna Kuthara, the Daśāvatāra temple at Deogarh in Jhansi District and certain other temples at Aihole."
i JBORS, Vol. XV, p. 80. 2 See the plates in R. D. Banerjea: History of Orissa, Vol. II. 3 See above. 4 "The Parasurämeśvara cannot be very far removed in date from the post-Gupta
temple of the Daśāvatāra at Deogadh in the Jhansi District. The low regularly curving outlines of the temples at Gandharádi and the Parasuram eśvara belong
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