Page:The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana.djvu/12

x severe, the decoration of the exterior was amazingly elaborate. All who have seen it have lavished praise on it: "the noblest specimen of medieval art;" "the most exquisite memorial of sun-worship in India;" and, from Sir James Fergusson, "for its size, the most richly ornamented building—externally at least—in the whole world." It wrung unwilling tribute even from the Mohammedans. But it is difficult for the imagination to grasp from words the mere extent of the decoration that covers like an embroidered veil all of the structure that remains. To mention only one thing: the extant frieze work varying from a foot to a foot and a half broad amounts alone to nearly three thousand feet in length and must contain at least six thousand figures. The sculpture is remarkably free from that conventionalism which, to the Western eye, frequently mars Eastern art. In delicacy, power, breadth and appropriateness of treatment, it represents one of the highest points ever reached in stone sculpture. It demonstrates that there was a time when the Hindoo artist worked from nature, as did their gods themselves, in the enshrining of their dreams in matter. Much of the stone used was very hard (chlorite), and has every appearance of having retained all its original clarity and strength of line. But, unfortunately for us, many of the figures are in a soft sandstone which has seriously suffered from the weather. . . . The date of the construction of this glorious monument to the religion that underlies all the religions of man is, according to the Annals of the temple itself, S'aka 1200, i.e., A. D. 1278, under the King Languliya Narasinka Deva. Moreover the seal of this king runs thus: "The lord of the earth, the tailed king Narasinka, erected a temple for the ray-garlanded god in the S'aka year 1200." Late research has fairly certainly set its construction between the years 1240 and 1280 A. D.

III. From the "Black Pagoda"—

The Jagamohan or Audience Hall of the Temple to Surya at Konarak has come to be more specifically known as the "Black Pagoda." This has probably come about through some association of the epithet kala, meaning "black," which the Hindoos apply to all deserted or desecrated religious edifices. The term is certainly not derived from the general color of the building, for the stone of which it is built is light. . . . The name Konarak or Konarka comes from the vernacularized forms of two Sanskrit, words (kona, "corner," and arka, "the sun"), implying "the corner of the sun," i.e., the corner of the world dedicated to the sun. It is thus to be surmised that this locality had for ages been associated in men's minds as especially blessed by the sun, and that long before this temple was built Konarak had been a prominent center of Sun-worship. . . . This probability is also supported by the legend of the founding of the temple. This legend, which is quite characteristic of the great imagination and