Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/83

 CHAP. III. GYARASPUR, we are left without evidence to determine; but there seems no reason for ascribing them to an earlier period than the commencement of the loth century, and possibly they may be of even somewhat later date. There seems very little doubt that more examples of this age and style exist in Rajputana and Central India. At Gyaraspur, 24 miles north-east from Bhilsa, and 140 miles south-west from this, there is a group of pillars arranged like these and like them deprived of their walls (Woodcut No. 293). In the Mukandwara pass there is a third example, but of much earlier date. 1 Was it that their walls were of burnt bricks or of small square stones which, being easily removed, were utilised ? My impression is, the latter was the case ; but be this as it may, these Gyaraspur pillars are possibly also the remains of a Jaina edifice, but of an age considerably more modern than the Ghantai. They can hardly under any circumstances be ascribed to an age anterior to the great revival in the loth century, and may not improbably belong to the 1 2th century. In the same town of Gyaraspur is a very grand old temple apparently of about the same age as these pillars. But it has been so ruined and repaired, and almost rebuilt, that it is extremely difficult to say what the form or purpose of the original erection may have been. There is also a toran of great beauty in the village, probably of the 1 1 th century, and in fact throughout this region there are numberless remains which, if scientifically examined, would probably suffice to fill up some of the largest gaps in our history. At Bhangarh, for instance, in the south of the Alwar territory, there are some very beautiful temples in style resembling the Jaina. 2 One in that neighbourhood photo- graphed by Captain Impey, may belong to the loth or nth century, and is as beautiful as any of its class, either at Khajuraho or elsewhere, and near it again is a colossal Jaina image, called Nan Gungi, some 20 ft in height, which is apparently of the same age as the temples, and consequently anterior to any of the colossi at Gwaliar or in the south of India. 3 The Jain sect are numerous in Rajputana, and though some of their temples have long been neglected and fallen into decay, some of them, being of the best age and un- restored, are of extreme interest to the investigator of Indian art. 1 ' Picturesque Illustrations of Indian Architecture,' by the Author, plate 5. 2 These are probably .Saiva. At Nilkanth (old Rajor), also in the hills of the Tahla pargana of the same state, are some temples of about the loth century, of great beauty of detail : probably they too are 6aiva. 3 Impey, ' Views in Delhi, Agra, and Rajpootana,' London, 1865, frontispiece and plate 60.