If I am correct in assigning so early a date to the tower of this temple, it is evident that the porch must be a subsequent addition: in the first place, because it fits badly to the tower, but more because the necessities of its construction require pillars internally, and they do not occur in Orissan architecture till a long subsequent date. It may, however, be that if this is really the oldest temple of its class in Orissa, its design may be copied from a foreign example, and borrowed, with all its peculiarities, from a style practised elsewhere. Be that as it may, it is interesting as showing the mode by which light was sometimes introduced into the porches of these temples between the ends of the beams of the stone roof. As the sloping roofing-stones project considerably beyond the openings, a subdued light is introduced, without either the direct rays of the sun, or the rain being able to penetrate.
231. Temple of Mukteswara. (From a Photograph.)
The temple of Mukteswara ([Woodcut No. 231]) is very similar in general design to that of Parasurameswara, but even richer and more varied in detail, and its porch partakes more of the regular Orissan type. It has no pillars internally, and the roof externally exhibits at least the germ of what we find in the porches of the great temple at Bhuvaneswar and the Black Pagoda. Its dimensions are somewhat less than those of the last temple described, but in its class it may be considered the gem of Orissan architecture.
The style of these temples differs so much from that of the next group, of which the great temple is the typical example, that I was at one time inclined to believe they may have belonged to different religions—this one to the Vaishnava, that to the Saiva. I have no means, however, of verifying this conjecture, and it is not always easy to do so even on the spot, for in India there is nothing so common as temples originally destined for the worship of one deity being afterwards devoted to that of another. Whatever may be the case in this instance, it is well to bear this in mind, as, whenever we have a complete history of Orissan architecture, these distinctions may lead to most important historical deductions.
Besides these, there are several other temples which, from the style of their architecture, I would feel inclined to place as earlier than the great temple. One is known as Sari Dëul, near the great temple, and another, a very complete and beautiful example, is called Moitre (query Mittra) Serai, which is almost a duplicate, on a small scale, of the great temple, except that it has no repetition of itself on itself. As above pointed out, almost all the ornaments on the façades of Buddhist temples are repetitions of themselves; but the Hindus do not seem to have adopted this system so early, and the extent to which it is carried is generally a fair test of the age of Hindu temples. In the great Pagoda there are eight copies of itself on each face, and in the Raj Rani the system is carried so far as almost to obliterate the original form of the temple.
Great Temple, Bhuvaneswar.
The great temple at Bhuvaneswar is one of the landmarks in the style. It seems almost certainly to have been built by Lelat Indra Kesari, who reigned from A.D. 617 to A.D. 657, and, taking it all in all, it is perhaps the finest example of a purely Hindu temple in India.
Though not a building of the largest class, the dimensions of this temple in plan are, so far as I can make out, far from contemptible. The whole length is nearly 300 ft., with a breadth varying from 60 ft. to 75 ft. The original temple, however, like almost all those in Orissa, consisted only of a vimana, or Bara Dewul, and a porch or Jagamohan, shaded darker in the plan ([Woodcut No. 232]), and they extend only to 160 ft. The Nat and Bhog-mandirs, shaded lighter, were added in the beginning of the 12th century. Though several temples have all these four apartments, so far as I can make out, none were originally erected with them. The true Orissan temple is like that represented in Woodcut No. 124, a building with two apartments only, and these astylar, or practically so: the pillars were only introduced in the comparatively modern additions.