Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/321

 CHAP. II. NEPAL, 277 scarcely be inclined to expect. When the religion of the destroyer was introduced into a country that professed the mild religion of Buddha, it might naturally be supposed that its most savage features would be toned down, so as to meet, to some extent at least, the prejudices of the followers of the religion it was superseding. So far from this being the case in this instance, it is said that when first introduced the gods were propitiated with human sacrifices, till warned in a dream to desist and substitute animals. 1 Besides this, the images of Durga or Kali, though hideous and repulsive enough in the plains, are ten times more so in Nepal, where Tantric rites and sorcery prevail as in Tibet ; and, in fact, throughout there is an exaggeration of all the most hideous features of the religion, that would lead to the belief that it found a singularly congenial soil in the valley, and blossomed with unusual exuberance there. So far, too, as the architecture of the Saiva temples in Nepal is concerned, it seems to indicate that the worship came into the valley from the north, rather than from the plains of Bengal. The architecture of the temples of Vishnu, on the contrary, seems evidently to be an offshoot of the art of the plains. STCPAS OR CHAITYAS. The Buddhist chaityas must be regarded as the oldest monuments in Nepal. Four of them are ascribed to A^oka, who is said to have visited the valley and built one in the centre of Patan, and others at the four cardinal points round the city. 2 They were not called stupas, since they contained no relics, but are strictly chaityas or monuments intended to call forth pious thoughts. The chaityas of the cardinal points still exist intact in their great outlines ; and their general appearance, as M. Sylvain Levi remarks, does not contradict the tradition : a hemispherical mound of earth, covered by a revetment of brick, surrounded by a plinth also of brick which serves as a circular path. Four chapels perhaps of later date are placed round the dome at the four points of the compass and joined to it each containing the image of one of the four " cardinal " Buddhas. 3 These chaityas still preserve the form of the earliest Buddhist monuments. The plinth is the only feature of an architectural 1 Buchanan Hamilton, ' Account of the Kingdom of Nepal,' pp. 35 and 211. 2 Oldfield's ' Sketches from Nepal/ vol. ii. p. 246 ; D. Wright's ' History of Nepal,' p. 116; and Sylvain Levi, ' Nepal,' tome i. pp. 263 and 331. 3 See ante, p. 230 note. The Buddhas are : Amitabha on the west ; Amogha- siddha on the north ; Akshobhya on the east ; and Ratnasambhava on the south. The Araka chaityas and all the largest temples have also a shrine for Vairochana to the right of Akshobhya's : his proper place is in the centre of the chaitya.