Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/123

 CHAP. II. HISTORY. 95 before the commencement of the I2th century, when we find Anantavarman Chodagangadeva (1078-1142) of the Eastern Ganga dynasty recording that he replaced the fallen lord of Orissa in his kingdom. 1 About this period the Ganga- van^a dynasty succeeded, the second of whom was the builder of the great Puri temple or at least completed it for its erection is ascribed to his father, Chodaganga, thirty years earlier. They were nominally 5aivas, but patronised also the Vaishnavas, whilst the preceding dynasty seem to have been devoted 5aivas. Owing to its remoteness from the seats of Muhammadan power, Orissa almost entirely escaped the ravages which devastated the principal Hindu cities in the earlier and more intolerant age of their power. The first serious invasion of Orissa was only made about 1510 by 'Alau-d-Dm Hasain Shah, King of Bengal, whose army sacked Katak and plundered Purf, but was driven back ; and it was not till 1 567- 1 568 that Sulaiman Khan Kararani, the Afghan Viceroy of Bengal, finally defeated the Orissa king at Jajpur. Soon after it was annexed by Akbar, and after four more years of contests it became a province of his empire in 1578, after which further outrages were hardly to be feared. At Jajpur the Muhammadans had already wreaked their vengeance on all that was Hindu ; but elsewhere the monuments were left more nearly intact than any other group in the north of India. Neither at Bhuvane^war nor at Puri or Kanarak are marked traces of their violence. In later times the Orissa remains have suffered from the sordid proceedings of the Public Works Department, which destroyed the fort at Barbati and other public buildings, to mend roads or to save some money in erecting a lighthouse at False Point. Further injury has been done by the antiquarian zeal of the officers who removed some of the best statues of the Rajarani temple, 2 and ..by the vandals who pulled down the Navagraha sculpture from the Kanarak temple. Lastly, and worst of all, by the Archaeological Survey, a few years ago, which caused the interior of the mandap of this famous monument to be completely filled up with stones and sand and so " shut up for ever." 3 Besides their immunity from the ordinary causes of destruc- tion of Hindu buildings, the Orissa group forms in itself one of the most complete and interesting in all India. The Khajuraho 1 'Indian Antiquary,' vol. xviii. p. 171 ; 'Jour. Asiat Soc. Bengal,' vol. Ixxii. pp. loiff. 2 Rajendralal Mitra's 'Antiquities of Orissa,' vol. ii. p. 90. 3 This was conceived to be the only way of preventing the roof from falling in. Mr. Marshall's 'Annual Report,' 1903-1904,' p. 48,