255. Temple at Udaipur.
At Kallian, in Bombay harbour, there is a temple called Ambernath, very similar to this, on making drawings and casts from which the Bombay government has lately spent a good deal of money.[467] It is, however, in a very ruinous state, and even when perfect could never have been equal to this one at Udaipur, and to many others on which the money might have been better laid out. In it there is a slab with an inscription, dated in the Saka year 782, or A.D. 860.[468] It is not quite clear, however, whether this inscription belongs to the temple which we now see, or to an earlier one, fragments of which are found built into the vimana of the present one. If the date of the temple is that just quoted, as Dr. Bhau Daji would have us believe, all that can be said is that it is utterly anomalous. If it is in A.D. 1070, as another inscription he quotes found near the place might lead us to infer,[469] it accords with all else we know of the style.
One other illustration must complete what we now have to say regarding these Indo-Aryan temples. It is one of the most modern of the style, having been erected by Meera Baie, the wife of Khumbo Rana of Chittore (A.D. 1418-1468). Khumbo was, as is well known, devoted to the Jaina faith, having erected the temple at Sadri ([Woodcut No. 133]), and the Pillar of Victory ([Woodcut No. 143]); yet here we find him and his wife erecting in their capital two temples dedicated to Vishnu. The king’s temple, which is close by, is very much smaller than this one, for which his wife gets credit. In plan, the only peculiarity is that the pradakshina, or procession-path round the cell, is here an open colonnade, with four little pavilions at the four corners, and this is repeated in the portico in the manner shown in the annexed diagram ([Woodcut No. 256]).
256. Diagram explanatory of the Plan of Meera Baie’s Temple, Chittore. No scale.
The roof of the portico, in the form of a pyramid, is placed diagonally as at Udaipur, while the tower itself is of so solid and unbroken an outline, that it might at first sight be ascribed to a much earlier date than the 15th century ([Woodcut No. 257]). When, however, it is closely looked at, we miss the frequent amalaka bands and other ornamental features of earlier times, and the crowning members are more unlike those of ancient temples. The curve, too, of its outline is regular from base to summit, and consequently feebler than that of the older examples; but taking it all in all, it certainly is more like an ancient temple than any other of its age I am acquainted with. It was a revival, the last expiring effort of a style that was dying out, in that form at least.
257. Temple of Vriji, Chittore. (From a Photograph.)