Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/319

CHAP. II. NEPAL. 275 the true student of the art lies in its ethnographic meaning. When fully mastered, it presents us with a complete microcosm of India as it was in the /th century, when Hiuen Tsiang visited it when the Buddhist and Brahmanical religions flourished side by side ; and when the distinctive features of the various races were far more marked than they have since become under the powerful solvent of the Muhammadan domination. From all these causes I believe that if the materials existed, and it were possible to write an exhaustive history of the architecture of the valley of Nepal, it would throw more light on most of the problems that are now perplexing us than that of any other province in India. It only, however, can be done by some one on the spot, and perfectly familiar not only with the Nepalese buildings, but with all the phases of the question ; l but even then its value would be more ethno- graphic than aesthetic. If this were an ethnographic history of architecture, to which the aesthetic question were subordinate, it would be indispensable that it should be attempted, however incomplete the materials might be ; but the contrary being the case, it must suffice here to point out the forms of the archi- tecture, merely indicating the modes in which the various styles are divided among the different races. Like that of so many other countries of India, the mythic history of Nepal commences even before the Kaliyug, and among its pre-historic visitors are mentioned Vipajyi and the other five Buddhas that preceded Sakyamuni, together with Manjujn Bodhisattwa, Svayambhu the self-existent, .Siva as Pa^upati, Vishnu, and other gods of the Hindu Pantheon. These do not concern us : tradition adds that A^oka visited the valley and built five chaityas, one in the centre of Patan and the others at the four cardinal points round it, which are still pointed out. We come to historical fact in the 5th century A.D. when we meet with the earliest inscriptions. 2 They belong to the later kings of the Lichchhavi dynasty, 1 Nepal is fortunate in having pos- found in Nepal, and the services he sessed in the late Mr. Brian H. Hodgson rendered to this cause are incalculably one of the most acute observers that i great. Nor did he neglect the archi- ever graced the Bengal Civil Service. At the time, however, when he was Resident in the valley, none of the questions mooted in this work can be said to have been started ; and he was mainly engrossed in exploring and communicating to others the unsuspected wealth of Buddhist learning which he tecture, as the numerous drawings in his collections bear witness. 2 The Nepal inscriptions were first copied and translated by Pandit Bhag- wanlal Indraji. ' Indian Antiquary,' vol. ix. pp. 163-194, and commented on, vol. xiii. pp. 411-428.