Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/114

86 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. BOOK VI. or 3000 years B.C., could never have been numerically one- half of the inhabitants of the country, except, perhaps, in some such limited district as that between the Satlaj and the Jamna ; and since the Christian Era no Aryan race has migrated eastward across the Indus, but wave after wave of peoples of Turanian race, under the names of Yavanas, Sakas, Hunas, Turks, or Mongols, have poured into India. This, combined with the ascendancy of the mixed or aboriginal races during the period when Buddhism was the prevailing religion of the country, has so completely washed out Aryanism from northern India during the building ages, that there is probably no community there which could claim one-tenth of pure Aryan blood in its veins, and with nine-tenths of impurity the term is certainly a misnomer. If it were not, we would certainly find some trace of external Aryan affinities in their style ; but in fact, no style is so purely local, and, if the term may be used, so aboriginal, as this. The origin of the Buddhist style is obvious and unmistakable ; that of the Dravidian and Chalukyan nearly as certain, though not quite so obvious ; but the origin of the northern Hindu style remains a mystery, unless, indeed, the solution suggested above (ante^ vol. i. p. 325) be considered an explanation. It may be so, to some extent; but I confess it is to my mind neither quite satisfactory nor sufficient. Thestyle was adopted by the Jains, and several examples of the peculiar forms of their vimanas, or jikharas have already been given (Woodcuts Nos. 290, 299, etc.) ; but it still remains to be ascertained from what original form the curvilinear square tower could have arisen. There is nothing in Buddhist, or any other art, at all like it. It does not seem to have been derived from any wooden form we know, nor from any brick or stone, or tile mode of roofing found anywhere else. I have looked longer, and, perhaps, thought more, on this problem than on any other of its class connected with Indian archi- tecture, but I have no more plausible suggestion to offer than that hinted at above. The real solution will probably be found in the accidental discovery of old temples so old as to betray in their primitive rudeness the secret we are now guessing at in vain. Meanwhile, we probably may remain sure that it was not an imported form, but an indigenous production, and that it has no connection with the architecture of any other people outside of India. The view above proposed for the origin of the style derives considerable support from the mode in which the temples are now found distributed. There are perhaps more temples now in Orissa than in all the rest of Hindustan put together. They are very frequent in Maharashtra, and, if we admit the Jains