Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/333

 CHAP. II. WOODEN TEMPLES. 289 but its most remarkable features are two rows one of sixteen, the other of seventeen monoliths standing in front of this. The tallest is 15 ft., the smallest 8 ft. 5 in., the general range being from 12 to 13 ft. in height, and 18 to 19 ft. in circumference. No two are exactly alike, though all have a general similarity of design to those represented in the preceding woodcut (No. 162), which may be considered as typical of the style. Another similar monolith was found a small distance off, measuring 16 ft. 8 in. in height, and 23 ft. in circumference. The natives were quite unable to give any account of these curious monuments, nor is it easy to guess why they were placed where they are. So far as I know, no similar monument exists anywhere, for the pillars seem perfectly useless, though attached to two rows of stones that may have borne a roof; otherwise they look like those rows of rude stone monuments which we are familiar with in this country and in Brittany, but which a more artistic people may have adorned with rude carvings, instead of leaving them quite plain, as our forefathers did. As for their carving, the only things the least like them, so far as I know, in India, are the pillars in the temple at Mudabidri (Woodcut No. 305), and in other places in Kanara, but there the pillars are actual supports of roofs ; these are round-headed, and evidently never were intended for any utilitarian purpose. Judging from the gateway and other remains of the town of Dimapur, in which these pillars are found, they cannot be of any great age. The gateway is of the Gaur type, with a pointed arch, probably of the i6th or i/th century; and, if Major Austen's observation is correct, that the sandstone of which they are composed is of a friable and perishable nature, they cannot be of any remote antiquity. It would be very interesting if a few more similar monuments could be found, and Asam is one of the most promising fields in India for such discoveries. When Hiuen Tsiang visited it, in the 7th century, it was known as the kingdom of Kamrup, one of the three principal states of Northern India, and con- tinued populous and important till the Pathan sovereigns of Delhi attempted its conquest in the I5th century. Owing to the physical difficulties of the country, they never were able to succeed in this attempt ; but they blockaded the country for many years, and, cut off from the rest of the world, the savage hill tribes on either hand, aided by famine, so depopulated the country that the jungle overpowered the feeble remnant that survived, and one of the richest valleys in the world became one of the most sparsely inhabited. When the jungle has again been cleared, and rendered fit for human population, there can be little doubt but that the remains of VOL. I. T