Page:Report of a Tour Through the Bengal Provinces of Patna, Gaya, Mongir and Bhagalpur; The Santal Parganas, Manbhum, Singhbhum and Birbhum; Bankura, Raniganj, Bardwan and Hughli in 1872-73.djvu/93

Rh was cut up into two divisions—one forming the doorway proper, the other what may be called the illuminating window. Temples in brick of this class are very rare. The essential requisites to be sought for in temples, with which to compare this and deduce the law applicable to it, are that it should possess a tall triangular overlapping opening divided into two parts, viz, the entrance and the window.

I can call to mind but three temples of this class which are now available for comparison—the temple at Sirpur in the Central Provinces, the temple at Konch, and the temple at Katras. In all these, the proportion of height of rectangular part of the opening is 3½ times the width. Using, then, this proportion, we get for the height of the rectangular opening 28 feet 7 inches. For the triangular portion there are numerous examples; and from these it appears that the height of the triangular portion was 1¾ times the span, or just half the height of the rectangular portion. The total height, then, of the opening amounts to 3½ + 1¾, or 5¼ times the width; hence the total height of the opening in the great temple under examination ought by this rule to be nearly 43 feet.

My approximate measurements agree in making the height to be not very different. I took it at 45 feet.

It may not be here out of place to glance at the difficulties in the way of accurate measurements. The laws deduced from examples and applied to this temple here show that these ancient structures were all constructed on definite principles, and in accordance with definite laws. So far the number of laws and proportions discovered bear a very small proportion to the whole of the great code of laws of ancient Indian art, and it would be very desirable to obtain more of them; but the discovery of the laws depends entirely on detailed and accurate measurements of a great number of buildings, and these measurements necessarily demand time. It is quite wrong, I venture to conceive, to lay down at this stage of our knowledge of Indian art what are the measurements that can and what those that cannot be neglected; for the very fact of being able to draw such a line presupposes a knowledge which we do not yet possess of the laws governing the disposition of parts. To render my meaning clearer, I need merely allude to the laws that I have in a previous paper shown as governing the structures at the Kutab in Delhi. Few, I venture to consider, would have imagined that the accurate measurements of the few ornamental bands, not of the great Minar, but of a dilapidated gateway, would have led to the discovery of