Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/425

 CHAP. IV. CHIDAMBARAM. 373 the title of Jumbuke^wara, which, though not so large as that dedicated to Sri Ranganatha, far surpasses it in beauty as an architectural object. The east gateway of the outer enclosure is not large, but it leads direct to the centre of a hall containing some 250 pillars. On the right these open on a tank fed by a perpetual spring, which is one of the wonders of the place. 1 The corresponding space on the left is occupied by about 470 columns : these together form the Thousand - pillared mantapam. Between the gopurams of the second enclosure is a very beautiful portico of cruciform shape, leading to the door of the sanctuary, which, however, makes no show externally, and access to its interior is not vouchsafed to the profane. The age of the courts of this temple is somewhat earlier than that of its great rival, and being all of one design, they probably were begun and completed at once, and from the simplicity of its parts and details must be earlier than the great buildings of Tirumalai Nayyak. In fact an inscription on the south wall of the second prakaram is dated in the tenth year of Jatavarman Sundara Pandya, who began to reign in 1251 ; 2 and, though the outer enclosures were subsequently added probably as late as A.D. 1600 the nucleus of the buildings must be about as old as the I2th century, and possibly even two centuries earlier. 3 One of the great charms of this temple, when I visited it, was its purity. Neither whitewash nor red nor yellow paint had then sullied it, and the time-stain on the warm-coloured granite was all that relieved its monotony ; but it sufficed, and it was a relief to contemplate it thus after some of the vulgarities I had seen. Now all this is altered. Like the pagodas at Rame^varam, and more so those at Madura, barbarous vulgarity has done its worst, and the traveller is only too fully justified in the contempt with which he speaks of these works of a great people which have fallen into the hands of such unworthy successors. CHIDAMBARAM. The Saiva temple at Chidambaram in South Arkot district is one of the most venerated, and has also the reputation of being one of the most ancient temples in southern India. It was there, therefore, if anywhere, that I at one time hoped to find some remains that would help to elucidate the history of the style. It was, besides, so far removed from any capital city or frequented haunt of man that one might hope to find its original form unaltered. 1 The view in this temple in my ' Pic- turesque Illustrations of Indian Archi- tecture,' No. 21, is taken from the corner of this tank. 8 ' Indian Antiquary,' vol. xxi. p. 121 and vol. xxii. p. 221. 3 Hultzsch's ' South Indian Inscrip- tions,' vol. ii. p. 253.