Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/199

CHAP. IV. KANTANAGAR. 159 courses, and is crowned by an amala^tla. 1 It may be noted that the doors had all been arranged to slide back into slits provided in the walls. The other vaulted temple, above alluded to, is that of Harideva, at Govardhan, 12 miles west from Mathura, and built by Raja Bhagwandas of Amber, 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 nth and I2th 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, 2 while except in scale the plan of the porch at Brindaban bears a most striking resemblance to that of St. Front at Perigeux. 8 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. KANTANAGAR. 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 suffi- cient importance to require illustration in a work like the present. The exceptional style is that which grew up in Bengal proper, and is practised generally in the province at the present day. It may have existed from an early date, but no very old 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 under- stand this, it may be as well to explain that the roofs of 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 1 The Tower of the Madan Mohan temple is of the same form, but very richly carved. Infra, p. 161, note 2. O T A t , 1 /"I 1 1 1 T-W 1 Muttra and Agra' (1873), to which and Growse's 'Mathura' (1880) the reader is referred. Both the Govind-deva and Harideva | 8 ' History of Ancient and Medieval temples are illustrated in Lieut. H. H. j Architecture,' 3rd ed. vol. ii. Woodcut Cole's ' Illustrations of Building near No. 562, p. 64.