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

SIVA AND

VISHNU SHRINES

loi

magic

weapons heobtained

from Mah^deva

himself, through

the practice

of austerities in the depths of

the Himalayan

forests.

Arjtina'sRath is, therefore,

onlyapoetical

synonym

fora

Sivatemple

;

theadjoining

one, Draupadi'sRath,

named

afterthecommonwife

of the five P^ndava brothers,

is dedi-

catedto Pirvati, Uma,

or Dtirg^,which areall

poetical names

for Siva's nature-force

or sakti, popularly called

his wife.^

Draupadi's Rath is not,therefore, aVishnu

shrine,but sym-

bolisesParvati,theCreatrix,assheisrepresented

inthefamous

sculptureoftheTrimtlrtiatElephanta.*^

Itis,doubtless,anexactreproduction

ofanancientIndian

villageshrine. The formof the roof

was derived from

primi-

tive construction of bambu and

thatch, but very

skilfully

adapted to the technique

of brick and stone,

and not, as

amateur

European

craftsmen considerit,an

unintelligentimi-

tation. When the up-to-date building craft of

Anglo-India

equals the magnificent work of ancient and

medieval India,

oreven that of living Indian master-builders,

there may be

some showof

reason intheneglectand

disparagementof the

Indian buildingtradition.

Sivaand Vishnushrinesoccur in pairs at Pattadakal

in

the

south-westof India (PI. LIX); at Khajuraho in

Central

India

;

at Bhuvan^shwar

inOrissa

;

andnodoubt

manyother

instancescould be

citedin everypart of India

had the great

quantity of archaeological

material

collected since Fergusson

wrote not been

arranged according to his unscientific

cate-

gories. Inevery

instancewhere thesepairsarefound,

archae-

ologists, Indian as well as

European,

have described the

Vishnushrine

asnorthern,orIndo-Aryan,andthe Sivashrine

as southern, or Dravidian,

regardless of the localityin which

1

Compare the similar

Dfirga shrine built outside the KMe chaitya-house

(PI.

XVIII)asasubstituteforoneofthepair

ofdhwaja-stambhas.

*

Seebelow,p.163.

1*