650 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL BIUSEUM. vol.42. 



It was about the middle of the third century B. C. that the Buddhists, 

 under King Asoka, who had raised Buddhism to the position of State 

 rehgion in India, introduced stone as building material for important 

 structures. Many features of Hindu arcliitecture point to the general 

 previous use of wood, being to a large extent imitations of wooden 

 models. 



There does not seem to be any fundamental distinction, from the 

 point of view of art, between a temple devoted to the worship of 

 Vislmu or to that of Siva — the two chief gods of the Hindu popula- 

 tion. It is only by observuig the images or emblems worshiped, or 

 by reading the mythological stories represented in the sculptures with 

 which the temple is adorned, that the deity to whom it is dedicated 

 can be determined. 



The essential part of every temple is the shrine or cell called vimana, 

 m which dwells the god with the attendant priest, and the vestibule 

 iantarala), which receives the worshipers, with a precedmg porch 

 {jagamalian) . This actual temple is not always the principal element 

 in the composition. It is very often of small dimensions and is over- 

 shadowed by the subsidiary parts, such as courts, gateways, tanks, 

 dwellings for the priests, and numerous other buildings designed for 

 the convenience of the pilgrims, or for the purpose of producing the 

 impression of mass and dignity. The Hindu temple is not designed 

 to serve as a meetmg place of worshipers for the recital of common 

 prayers, or the performance of a public ritual. The Bralimin cult 

 is not congregational, but individual. The worshiper walks round 

 the temple a set number of times, always with his right side next 

 to it, then enters the front chamber, rings a bell to call the attention 

 of the god, presents his offermgs of flowers, fruit, rice, etc., either 

 makes a prostration or raises his hands to his forehead, mutters his 

 inaudible short prayer, gets a ghmpse of the god, and leaves. 



The general characteristics more or less common to all Hindu 

 styles are the pyramidal stepping of the dominant parts and the 

 placing of temples on platforms or terraces, features which may 

 have been borrowed from Babylonia by way of Persia. The dome 

 is horizontal, taldng a form more or less conical or pointed, and its 

 decoration is usually likewise horizontal; that is, the ornaments are 

 ranged in concentric rings, one above the other, instead of being 

 disposed in vertical ribs as in Roman or Gothic vaults. The same 

 motive, moreover, is often indefinitely repeated, representing, as it 

 were, miniatures of the tower or some other part which it decorates. 

 To these features may be added a predilection for mmute and pro- 

 fuse ornament, consisting almost exclusively of sculpture and carv- 

 ing. "Wliat the Hindu architect craved for," says Ferguson,* the 



' James Ferguson, History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, revised and edited with additions by- 

 James Burgess and R, Phene Spiers, London, 1910, p. 352. 



