261. View of Temple at Bindrabun. (From a Photograph.)
The other vaulted temple, just alluded to, is at Goverdhun, not far off, and built under the same tolerant influence during the reign of Akbar. It is a plain edifice 135 ft. long by 35 ft. in width externally, and both in plan and design singularly like those early Romance churches that are constantly met with in the south of France, belonging to the 11th and 12th centuries. If, indeed, the details are not too closely looked into, it might almost pass muster for an example of Christian art at that age,[470] while except in scale the plan of the porch at Bindrabun bears a most striking resemblance to that of St. Front at Perigeux ([Woodcut No. 328], vol. i.). The similarity is accidental, of course; but it is curious that architects so distant in time and place should hit so nearly on the same devices to obtain certain desired effects.
262. Balcony in Temple at Bindrabun. (From a Photograph.)
Kantonuggur.
In addition to the great Indo-Aryan style of temple-building described above, there are a number of small aberrant types which it might be expedient to describe in a more extensive work; but, except one, none of them seem of sufficient importance to require illustration in a work like the present. The exceptional style is that which grew up in Bengal proper on the relaxation of the Mahomedan severity of religious intolerance, and is practised generally in the province at the present day. It may have existed earlier, but no examples are known, and it is consequently impossible to feel sure about this. Its leading characteristic is the bent cornice, copied from the bambu huts of the natives. To understand this, it may be as well to explain that the roofs of all the huts in Bengal are formed of two rectangular frames of bambus, perfectly flat and rectangular when formed, but when lifted from the ground and fitted to the substructure they are bent so that the elasticity of the bambu, resisting the flexure, keeps all the fastenings in a state of tension, which makes a singularly firm roof out of very frail materials. It is the only instance I know of elasticity being employed in building, but is so singularly successful in attaining the desired end, and is so common, that we can hardly wonder when the Bengalis turned their attention to more permanent modes of building they should have copied this one. It is nearly certain that it was employed for the same purposes before the Mahomedan sovereignty, as it is found in all the mosques at Gaur and Malda; but we do not know of its use in Hindu temples till afterwards, though now it is extremely common all over northern India.
One of the best examples of a temple in this style is that at Kantonuggur, twelve miles from the station at Dinajepore. It was commenced in A.D. 1704 and finished in 1722.[471] As will be seen from the annexed illustration ([Woodcut No. 263]), it is a nine-towered temple, of considerable dimensions, and of a pleasingly picturesque design. The centre pavilion is square, and, but for its pointed form, shows clearly enough its descent from the Orissan prototypes; the other eight are octagonal, and must, I fancy, be derived from Mahomedan originals. The pointed arches that prevail throughout are certainly borrowed from that style, but the building being in brick their employment was inevitable.
No stone is used in the building, and the whole surface is covered with designs in terra-cotta, partly conventional, and these are frequently repeated, as they may be without offence to taste; but the bulk of them are figure-subjects, which do not ever seem to be repeated, and form a perfect repository of the manners, customs, and costumes of the people of Bengal at the beginning of the last century. In execution they display an immeasurable inferiority to the carvings on the old temples in Orissa or the Mysore, but for general effect of richness and prodigality of labour this temple may fairly be allowed to compete with some of the earlier examples.