Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/130

 IO2 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. BOOK VI. temple most worthy of the deity ; and, whether he was right or wrong, the effect of the whole is certainly marvellously beautiful. It is not, however, in those parts of the building shown in the wood- cut that the greatest amount of carving or design was bestowed, but in the perpen- dicular parts seen from the courtyard (Woodcut No. 316). There the sculpture is of a very high order and great beauty of design. This, how- ever, ought not to surprise us when we recollect that at Amaravati, on the banks of the Krishna, not far from the southern boundary of this kingdom, there stood a temple more delicate and elaborate in its carvings than any other building in India, 1 and that this temple had been finished probably eight centuries before this one was erected ; and though the history of art in India is now written in decay, its growth and vitality had, in earlier times, been vigorous. Attached to the Jagamohan of this temple is a Nata-mandir, or dancing-hall, whose date is, traditionally assigned to about the year 1 100 : but this is perhaps too early, as there are inscriptions of the I2th and I3th centuries on the doorway of the temple porch, and they are probably earlier than the Nata- mandir. But even then it enables us to measure the extent of this decay with some degree of certainty. It is elegant, of course, for art had not yet perished among the Hindus, Lower part of Great Tower at Bhuvane^war. (From a Photograph.) 1 'Tree and Serpent Worship,' plates 48-98; 'Amaravati and Jaggayyapeta Buddhist Stupas' (1887).