Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/145

 CHAP. III. DHARWAR. 117 CHAPTER III. WESTERN INDIA. CONTENTS. Dharwar Brahmanical Rock-cut Temples, at Elura, Badami, Elephanta, Dhamnar, and Poona. DHARWAR IF the province of Orissa is interesting from the completeness and uniformity of its style of Indo-Aryan architecture, that of Dharwar, or, more correctly speaking of Maharashtra, is almost equally so from exactly the opposite conditions. In the western province, the Dravidian style struggles with the northern for supremacy during all the earlier stages of their growth, and the mode in which the one influenced the other will be one of the most interesting and instructive lessons we can learn from their study, when the materials are available for a thorough investigation of the architectural history of this province. In magnificence, however, the western can never pretend to rival the eastern province. There are more and far finer buildings in the one city of Bhuvane^war alone than in all the cities of Maharashtra put together, and the extreme elaboration of their details gives the Orissan examples a superiority that the western temples cannot pretend to rival. Among the oldest and most characteristic of the Dharwar temples is that of Papanatha, at Pattadakal. As will be seen from the plan of this temple given above (Woodcut No. 182, vol. i., page 322), the cell, with its tower, has not the same predomi- nating importance which it always had in Orissa ; and instead of a mere vestibule it has -a four-pillared porch, which would in itself be sufficient to form a complete temple on the eastern side of India. Beyond this, however, is the great porch, Mandapa, or Jagamohan square, as usual, but here it possesses sixteen pillars, in four groups, instead of the astylar arrange- ments so common in the east. It is, in fact, a copy, with very slight alterations, of the plan of the great 5aiva temple at the same place (Woodcut No. 204), or the Kailas at Elura (Wood- cut No. 199). These, with others, form a group of early temples