Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/163

CHAP. IV. CHANDRAVATI. Eran, this Chandravati fragment completes the list of what we at present can feel sure of having been erected before the middle of the 9th century. There are doubtless others, such as the temples at Pathari and Tigowa, that may be of even an earlier age, and it would be well they were examined, for this is one of the most elegant specimens of architecture of its period (Woodcut No. 335). It has not the poetry of arrangement of the Jaina octagonal domes, but it approaches very nearly to them by the large square space in the centre, which was covered by one of the most elegantly designed and most **, exquisitely carved roofs known to exist B- anywhere. Its arrangement is evidently jg 1 borrowed from that of Buddhist viharas, and it differs from them in style because their interiors were plastered and painted , here, on the contrary, everything is carved 335- in stone. 1 It is a Saiva shrine. Leaving these fragments, one of the oldest, and certainly one of the most perfect, in Central India is the desecrated temple at Baroli, situated in a wild and romantic spot not far from the falls of the Chambal, whose distant roar in the still night is the only sound that breaks the silence of the solitude around them The principal temple, represented in the Woodcut No. 336, may probably, pending a more precise determination, be ascribed to the 9th or loth century, and is one of the few of that age now known ; it was originally dedicated to Siva. Its general out- line is identical with that of the contemporary Orissan temples. But instead of the astylar enclosed porch, or mandapa, it has a pillared portico of great elegance, whose roof reaches half-way up the temple, and is sculptured with a richness and complexity of design almost unrivalled, even in those days of patient prodigality of labour. It will be observed in the plan (Wood- cut No. 337) that the dimensions are remarkably small, and the temple is only 58 ft. high, so that its merit consists entirely in its shape and proportions, and in the elegance and profusion of the ornament that covers it. 1 Tod (vol. ii. pp. 733ff.), gives several plates of the details of the porch by a native artist fairly well drawn but want- ing shadow to render them intelligible. Unfortunately we now learn that this monument had been repaired two or three years ago, with ugly masonry, plaster and whitewash. Such is what has to be expected wherever an ancient monument is repaired by Hindus or entrusted to the ordinary engineer to clean.