For the style of architecture most characteristic of the great Gupta period, one must turn to the ancient capitals of Indian dynasties least affected by the storm of Muhammadan iconoclasm which began to sweep over Northern India in the eleventh century, and continued to rage at intervals down to the time of Aurangzib. Bhuvanēshvar, which from a time of unknown antiquity was the capital of the kingdom of Orissa, or Kalinga—the conquest of which by Asoka is described in his Edicts as the event which led to his becoming a disciple of the True Law—is one of these.
Surrounded by rocky hills in the caves of which Jain and Buddhist hermits found retreats, Bhuvanēshvar in the course of centuries acquired an odour of sanctity which made it, like Benares and other places, a city of the gods, encircled by a pilgrims' procession path and filled with hundreds of temples. The name Bhuvanēshvar, "Lord of the Universe," suggests that it was a king's capital, and the temples are, in fact, nearly all crowned by the royal sikhara, and have the orthodox aspect of a Vishnu shrine facing the rising sun, though in many cases Siva is the deity worshipped.
In Jain, Buddhist, or Brahmanical temples when the saint or deity of the shrine is worshipped as a hero, or world-conqueror, Indian craft ritual ordains that the roof shall be Vishnu's spire instead of Siva's dome.
In the centre of the group towers the steeple of the Great Linga-rāj temple, over 180 feet high (Pl. XIV, a), a masterpiece of fine masonry built of the local laterite stone, perfectly jointed without mortar or cement.
For purity of outline and dignity of its rich but unobtrusive decoration, as well as for its superb technique, the Linga-rāj sikhara must rank as one of the greatest works of the Indian builder, though its
