227. Dravidian and Indo-Aryan Temples at Badami. (From a Photograph.)
If these views are correct, it is evident that though we may use the term Indo-Aryan as the most convenient to describe and define the limits of the northern style, the name must not be considered as implying that the Aryans, as such, had anything to do either with its invention or its use. All that it is intended to convey is, that it was invented and used in a country which they once occupied, and in which they have left a strong impress of their superior mental power and civilization.
If this reservation is always borne in mind, I know of no term that more conveniently expresses the characteristics of this style, and it is consequently proposed to adopt it in the following pages as the name of the style that prevailed among the Hindus in northern India, between the Vindhya and Himalayan mountains, from the 7th century to the present day.
The general appearance of the northern temples, and the points of difference between them and those of the south, will be appreciated from the above woodcut (No. [227]), representing two very ancient temples, built in juxtaposition, at Badami, in Dharwar. That on the left is a complete specimen of Dravidian architecture. There is the same pyramidal form, the same distinction of storeys, the same cells on each, as we find at Mahavellipore ([Woodcut No. 181]), at Tanjore ([Woodcut No. 191]), or at Mádura ([Woodcut No. 183]). In the right-hand temple, the Indo-Aryan, on the contrary, the outline of the pyramid is curvilinear; no trace of division of storeys is observable, no reminiscence of habitations, and no pillars or pilasters anywhere. Even in its modern form ([Woodcut No. 228]), it still retains the same characteristics, and all the lines of the pyramid or sikra are curvilinear, the base polygonal. No trace of utilitarianism is visible anywhere. If Woodcut No. 228 is compared with that at page 331 ([Woodcut No. 183]), the two styles will be exhibited in their most modern garbs, when, after more than 1000 years’ practice, they have receded furthest from the forms in which we first meet them Yet the Madras temple retains the memory of its storeys and its cells. The Bengal example recalls nothing known in civil or domestic architecture.
| 228. Modern Temple at Benares. | 229. Diagram Plan of Hindu Temple. |
Neither the pyramid nor the tumulus affords any suggestion as to the origin of the form, nor does the tower, either square or circular; nor does any form of civil or domestic architecture. It does not seem to be derived from any of these; and, whether we consider it as beautiful or otherwise, it seems certainly to have been invented principally at least for æsthetic purposes, and to have retained that impress from the earliest till the present day.