Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/375

 CHAP. III. MAMALLAPURAM. 327 CHAPTER III. DRAVIDIAN ROCK-CUT TEMPLES. CONTENTS. Mamallapuram Kailas, Elura. ALTHOUGH it may not be possible to point out the origin of the Dravidian style, and trace its early history with the same precision as we can that of Buddhist architecture, there is nothing so mysterious about it as there is regarding the styles of northern India, nor does it burst on us full blown at once as is the case witn the architecture of the Chalukyas. Hitherto, the great difficulty in the case has been, that the temples of southern India have almost all been found to be of so modern a date. The great building age there was the i6th and I7th centuries of our era. Some structural buildings, it is true, could be traced back to the nth or 1 2th with certainty, but beyond that all was to a great extent conjecture ; and if it were not for rock-cut examples, we could hardly go back much further with anything like certainty. Recent investigations, however, combined with improved know- ledge and greater familiarity with the subject, have now altered this state of affairs to a great extent. It seems hardly doubtful now that the Kailas at Elura, and the great temples at Pattadakal, are anterior to the loth century. 1 In fact, it has been ascertained that they date from the 8th, and the " raths," as they are called, at Mamallapuram or the " Seven Pagodas " on the Madras coast, are as early as the /th century, and are in reality the oldest examples of their class known, and the prototypes of the style. One circumstance which prevented the age of the Mamalla- puram raths being before detected is, that being all cut in granite and in single blocks, they show no sign of wearing or decay, which is so frequently a test of age in structural buildings, and being all in the same material produces a family likeness among them, which makes it at first sight difficult to discriminate between what is old and what new. More than this, they all Burgess, ' Report on Belgam and Kaladgi,' 1875, plates 39, 40.