Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/499

 CHAP. I. TEMPLE AT HANAMKONDA. 435 The pillars, too, are rich, without being overdone ; l and as the central four in the main hall are of the same design and beautifully carved, the effect of the whole is singularly varied, but at the same time pleasing and elegant. The roof also is covered by great slabs richly sculptured. In Orangal or Worangal fort there are four Kirtti Stambhas, as they are called (Woodcut No. 253), of one pattern, facing one another, which have formed the gateways to a large temple that once occupied the centre of the area, but of which only a group of pillars and lintels belonging to its south-west corner now remains. The distance between the north and south gate- ways is 480 ft., and between those on the east and west 433 ft., leaving ample space for a temple of unusual size and splendour. 2 It cannot be said they are particularly elegant specimens of art. Their main interest lies in their being the lineal descendants of the four gateways at Sanchi (Woodcut No. 38), and they are curious as exemplifying how, in the course of a thousand years or thereabouts, a wooden style of building may lose all traces of its origin as clearly as they do ; for it seems most unlikely that any such form could have been invented by any one using stone constructions, and that only. There are also in the Orangal fort a great number of smaller temples and shrines, in the same style as the great temple, and, like it, apparently mostly dedicated to Siva, from the presence of his bull almost everywhere. Most are ruined ; and, judging from appearances, I am inclined to believe this is owing to Moslim violence. The mode of building is without mortar, and the joints are by no means well fitted. The style is also remarkably free from figure-sculpture, which is generally the thing that most easily excites the iconoclastic feelings of the followers of the Prophet. Lastly a simple example of the style in a village temple has been cited at a place called Buchhanapalli, not far from Haidarabad 3 (Woodcut No. 254). There are four principal faces on the walls of the shrine, larger than the others : three 1 The most elaborately chased pillars of this style are to be seen in the temple of Ramappa near Palampet, about 30 miles north-east from Hanamkonda. - Cousens' ' Lists of Antiquarian Re- mains in the Nizam's Territory,' pp. 4&f. To Mr Cousens is due the materials for the revision of this account of the Worangal and Hanamkonda remains. Fergusson's map 50 miles west from Haidarabad, and in that position (Lat. 17 31' N., Long. 77 48' E.) is the village of Buchhanapalli, 14 miles north from Dhariir railway station. Mr Cousens ( ' Lists of Antiquarian Remains in the Nizam's Territories,' p. 2) conjectured that it might be ' Bachropully,' 12 miles north- west of Secundarabad. In ' Glimpses of the Nizam's Dominions' by A. Claude Campbell' (1898), pp. 452 and 459, are two views of the shrine of a Hindu temple at 'Bichpalli.' This place is 10 miles south-east from Indur ; and the temple, which is of unusual plan and considerable merit, stands on a rocky
 * ' Buchropully ' was placed on Mr