Leaving these fragments, one of the oldest, and certainly one of the most perfect, in Central India is the now desecrated temple at Barrolli, situated in a wild and romantic spot, not far from the falls of the Chumbul, whose distant roar in the still night is the only sound that breaks the silence of the solitude around them. The principal temple, represented in the Woodcut No. 249, may probably be added to the list of buildings enumerated above as erected before 750 A.D. It certainly is at least a century more modern than that at Chandravati, and, pending a more precise determination, may be ascribed to the 8th or 9th century, and is one of the few of that age now known which were originally dedicated to Siva. Its general outline is identical with that of the contemporary Orissan
249. Temple at Barrolli. (From a Drawing by the Author.)
250. Plan of Temple at Barrolli. (From Drawings by the Author.)
temples. But instead of the astylar enclosed porch, or mantapa, it has a pillared portico of great elegance, whose roof reaches half-way up the temple, and is sculptured with a richness and complexity of design almost unrivalled, even in those days of patient prodigality of labour. It will be observed in the plan ([Woodcut No. 250]) that the dimensions are remarkably small, and the temple is barely 60 ft. high, so that its merit consists entirely in its shape and proportions, and in the elegance and profusion of the ornament that covers it.
In front of the temple is a detached porch, here called a Chaöri, or nuptial hall (the same word, I believe, as Choultrie in the south), in which tradition records the marriage of a Huna (Hun) prince to a Rajputni bride, for which purpose it is said to have been erected;[462] but whether this is so or not, it is one of the finest examples of such detached halls known in the north. We miss here the octagonal dome of the Jains, which would have given elegance and relief to its ceiling, though the variety in the spacing of the columns has been attained by a different process. The dome was seldom if ever employed in Hindu architecture, but they seem to have attempted to gain sufficient relief to their otherwise monotonous arrangement of columns by breaking up the external outline of the plan of the mantapa, and by ranging the aisles diagonally across the building, instead of placing them parallel to the sides.
The other two temples here are somewhat taller and more pointed in their form, and are consequently either more modern in date, or if of the same age—which may possibly be the case—would bring the date of the whole group down to the 10th century, which, after all, may be their true date, though I am at present inclined to think the more ancient date more consistent with our present knowledge.