The ancient and medieval architecture of India: a study of Indo-Aryan civilisation

86

THE DHARMARAJA

RATH

All

thosewhich

the Chinese pilgrim described,

and

also

those

which Kanishka

builtin theGandharacountry, arenow

onlyheaps of ruins. Theirupperstories

were,nodoubt,often

built entirelyofwood

;

andevenmore

substantialonesofbrick

were pulled down as soon as theywere deserted, to provide

buildingmaterialforneighbouringtownsandvillages. Fortun-

ately,however,thereexistsaveryfinemodelofsuchabuilding,

one of the so-called Raths at Mamallapuram, near Madras,

carved out

of a

large granite boulder(PI. XXIII).

There is

everyreason tobelievethat itclosely

resembles thepyramidal

monasteries

ofancientIndia

in

thenorthaswellasinthesouth.

Thedate of this Dharmarija Rath,^as it is nowcalled,

hasbeenascertained

withtolerablecertaintyascirca

670-700a.d.

It is

areproduction in miniature ofa Saivaite monastery

of

fourstoreys

;

it

is, infact,an amplificationof theplan

of the

BharhutBodhitree

shrineshowninPI.IX,d,bythe

provisionof

accommodation

fordevoteespermanentlyattaching

themselves

toit. Thenine-spired

temple atBuxar,inthe Hughli

district,

andsimilartwenty-five-spired

onesat Lilgiand

otherplacesin

Bengal, aredesigned

on thesame principle

; onlythe Bengali

roofshaveaconvexcurvature,

on account

of theheavyrainfall

of thelocality, and the

square cells are

crownedwithVishnu

sikharas

insteadofbySiva

domes.

Though

theinteriorofthe

Dharmaraja

Rathisnot

shown

in the

model, it is easyby

analogy to realise

the plan

of it.

Making allowance

forthedifference

of climate

and

material—

the Bengali

temples being built

of brick—

the ground

plan

of

the Mamallapuram

modelfollows

closely

the northern

proto-

type fromwhich it

was derived.'

There

wasa

square shrine

1

Rathmeans,literally,the

chariotofawarrior,

orprocessional

carof

asacred

image.

2 Theparticular Bengali

temples

mentionedare,of

course,quite

modern,

butthe

typeisaveryancientone,
which thebuilders
of
Muhammadan Gaur
adapted'
totheir

mosques.