Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/327

 CHAP. II. NEPAL. 283 same characteristic form of roof, which is nearly universal in all buildings, civil or ecclesiastical, which have any pretension to architectural design. The temple on the left of the last cut is dedicated to Krishna, and will be easily recognised by any one familiar with the architecture of the plains from its .yikhara or spire, with the curvilinear outline, and its clustering pavilions, not arranged quite like the ordinary types, but still so as to be unmistakably Bengali. About 3 miles east from Kathmandu, on the right bank of the Bagmati stream, is the sacred village of Pa^upati the Benares of the Nepalese worshippers of Siva. The place consists almost entirely of temples and chapels of stone and wood, and is sacred to Pa^upati or Siva as the god of beasts. A general view of the village is given in the woodcut (No. 159). On the right is prominent the double roof of the great temple of Pa^upatinath the most venerated Linga shrine of the Saivas in Nepal. Its doors are overlaid with silver carved in the style of those in the palace at Bhatgaon and at Patan. The truula of the god may be seen to the right of the temple as well as on its summit ; but the great Nandi or bull that rests in front of the shrine is hid by the surrounding buildings. Close by it is the place where widows are burnt as Satzs along with the bodies of their dead husbands ; and the little chapels along the side of the river are commemorative of the more notable. None of the temples here are of any antiquity, most of them if not all dating since the beginning of the I7th century. 1 One other example must complete our illustration of the architecture of Nepal. It is a doorway leading to the darbar at Bhatgaon, and is a singularly characteristic specimen of the style, but partaking much more of China than of India in the style of its ornaments (Woodcut No. 160, p. 285). It is indeed so like an archway in the Nankau Pass, near Pekin given further on that I was at first inclined to ascribe them to the same age. The Chinese example, however, is dated in J 345 2 > this one, according to Mr Hodgson, was erected as late as 1725, yet their ornamentation is the same. In the centre is Garuda, with a seven-headed snake-hood ; and on either hand are Nagas, with seven-headed hoods also ; and the general character of the foliaged ornaments is so similar that it is difficult to believe in so great a lapse of time between them ; but I cannot question Mr Hodgson's evidence. Since he was in Nepal the building on the left-hand side of the cut has 1 Sylvain Levi's ' Le Nepal,' tome i. PP- 357-366. The illustration (No. 159) is from G. Le Bon's ' Monuments,' p. 245. - ' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society ' (N.S.), vol. v. p. 18.