18 JO.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



39 



Ayodhya, greatly famed in this world, and built by Mann himself, 



the 'lord of men' This great and ])rosperous city was twelve 



yojanas (nine miles) in length, and three yojanas in breadth, and 

 stored with all conveniences. The streets and lanes were admir- 

 ably disposed, and the high roads were well sprinkled with water. 



It was adorned with arched gateways, and beautiful ranges of 



shops; it was fortified with numerous defences and warlike ma- 

 chines, and inhabited by all sorts of skilful artists It was 



beautiful witli gardens and groves of mango trees, and inclosed 



with high walls It was surrounded by impassable ditches, and 



secured by fortifications difficult of assault by foreign kings 



It was ornamented with palaces of exquisite workmanship, lofty 

 as mountains, and enriched with jewels; abounding with beautiful 

 houses consisting of several stories; and it shone like Indra's 



Heaven Its aspect had an enchanting effect; and the whole 



city was diversified with various colours, and decorated with re- 

 gular avenues of sweet-scented trees It was tilled with build- 

 ings erected close to one another, and without intermediate voids; 

 and situated on a smooth, level ground This city truly sur- 

 passed any that was ever beheld on earth." 



LIST OF AUTHORITIES. 

 Cory*B Fragments.— Canina, Architettura Antlca. — Layard'8 Nineveh.— Sir Robert Ker 

 Porter's Travels. — Sir John Chardiiie's Travels. — Maurice's Indian Antiquities — Haoi 

 Rdz. Architecture of the Hindoos.— Fergusaon's Rock-cut Temples of India.— Daniel's 

 Oriental Autiquitiea, 



ARCHITECTURE OF SOUTHERN INDIA. 



Oil the Architecture of Southern India. By James Fergusson, 

 Esq., Architect. — (Paper read at the Royal Institute of British 

 Architects, January 7th.) 



Those who heard me on a former occasion may recollect that I 

 pointed out, and strongly insisted on the fact, of India being occu- 

 pied by two distinct and separate races: one of these aboriginal, 

 occupying exclusively at the present day the southern extremity of 

 the peninsula, and extending to and across the valley of the Gan- 

 ges; but there only as an underlying stratum to a second race. 

 These latter, commonly called the Indo-Germanic or Sanscrit race, 

 came across the Indus from the north-west, and gradually displaced 

 tlie aboriginal native tribes in the valleys of the Indus and Ganges 

 (except to the extent above pointed out); in these countries they 

 are, and, as far as our histories extend, they always were, the 

 dominant classes. All we know of the literature or history of the 

 country is owing to their superior energy and intellectual de- 

 velopment. 



The Southern or Tamul races never, apparently, had a litera- 

 ture of their own; most of their dialects are quite uncultivated, 

 and so deficient are their literary records that we know almost 

 nothing of their history or of their intellectual culture. Not- 

 withstanding however this literary and historical poverty, the in- 

 habitants of the south were far more daring and extensive builders 

 than those of the north; and indeed I do not know of any region 

 on the surface of the globe, that can boast of the same number of 

 temples, covering so much ground, and showing such an infinity of 

 labour bestowed on their details; and as such, they certainly de- 

 serve to be known and studied. 



The principal buildings in the south of India are of course 

 temples, as is the case in most countries, and is always the case in 

 half civilisetl ones. In this region the temples consist principally 

 of two parts; one of which, called the Fiiiiaaa, is the temple pro- 

 per — the other, or Gopura, is the gateway. There are besides, 

 halls of various dimensions, and walls surrounding the various 

 courts, which I wUl speak of afterwards. But to begin with the 

 vimana — this consists in all instances of a square basement, of one 

 or two stories in height, ornamented with pilasters, between which 

 are niches containing statues of the gods; within the basement is 

 a square or rather cubical apartment or cella, the sanctum of the 

 temple, in which the principal image of the god is placed. This 

 basement is always built of stone — in the extreme south, an old 

 red sandstone; a little further north, of compact limestone; but 

 over the greater part of the country of a fine close-grained gra- 

 nite. Above the basement rises a pyramidal building, composed 

 of brickwork covered with the fine durable cement of the coun- 

 try, which retains its sharp edge even after the wear and tear 

 of nearly a thousand years. This pyramid consists of one, two, 

 three, four, or more stories, up to twelve or fourteen, according 

 to tlie dimensions or importance of the building, and is always 

 surmounted by a circular dome-like termination. Each story of 



the building is ornamented by alternate long and short miniature 

 temples or shrines — alternate' vimanas and gopuras in short— each 

 smaller one with at least one image before it, the larger oneii with 

 three, or often with groups of a greater number of figures. These 

 smaller shrines, however, though they relieve and vary the surface 

 of the pyramid, are never so important as to break the general 

 outline, which always retains that of a straight-lined pyramid. 



The gopura is in every respect identical with the vimana, ex- 

 cept that its plan instead of being an exact square is always ob- 

 long, generally in the ratio of three to two, so as to admit of its 

 being pierced by the great doorway which always traverses its 

 lesser diameter. The change in the form of the base also neces- 

 sitates a change in that of tlie crowning member, which instead ot 

 being circular is elongated into a sort of wagon roof, difficult to 

 describe, but easily understood from the drawings. In the mode 

 of decorating it, either architecturally or with sculpture, it is 

 identical with the vimana. 



To the vimana is generally attached a porch (or Mantapa) ; 

 frequently this is only a repetition of the basement of the temple, 

 but with a low roof instead of the high pyramidal one of the 

 temple; frequently, however, the porch is open and columnar; in 

 small temples of merely two or four pillars supporting a flat roof, 

 but frequently of thirty or forty pillars, arranged as shown in the 

 diagrams, in a manner which displays the principal peculiarities of 

 the style. Generally speaking the columns are square in plan, 

 changing into octagons and circles, or figures with sixteen sides, 

 according to the rules of Hindoo art, and sculptured from tlie 

 basement to the bracket capital, which always forms the upper 

 termination, the pillars are generally placed so as to be equidistant 

 from one another all over the floor; but as there is always a wider 

 aisle in the centre running to the door of the temple, and generally 

 a similar one crossing it at right angles, this is obtained by omit- 

 ting one, two, or even three rows of pillars, and replacing them 

 constructively by attaching bracketing shafts to the fronts of the 

 i-emaining sitle columns, and carrying forward from them a bold 

 series of brackets carrying longitudinal ties and trusses, all in 

 stone, till the space to be roofed by flat stones is the same, or 

 nearly so, as that of the side aisles. Besides being used as por- 

 ticoes to temples, an arrangement similar to this, of one centre 

 and two side aisles on either side of it is used in some temples as a 

 cloister surrounding the courts: at Ramissiram fur instance, such 

 a cloister extends for nearly 1,000 feet. 



A still more e.-itraordinary columnar arrangement is that of the 

 Choultries, or nuptial halls, — usually called "halls of a thousand 

 columns," and frequently containing exactly that number. At 

 Tinevelly for instance, of which a plan is on the wall, the number 

 is easily calculated, as the hall is 10 pillars in width and 100 in 

 length; at Chelumbrum it is 21 X *!, which with the 16 pillars of 

 its porch would make up the number exactly, but there some have 

 been omitted in the centre, so as to allow of open spaces for the 

 ceremonies, so that the actual number is 930; in many instances, 

 how ever, there are only 600 or 700, but in none that I know of 

 less than 500, and considering that in most cases all these are of 

 granite, generally of one piece from 16 to 20 or 30 feet in height, 

 and always carved from basement to capital with the most varied 

 ornaments, it will be easily conceived what works of labour they 

 must have been, and what impression of infinity of toil they pro- 

 duce on the spectator. I need not here enter into more detail on 

 this subject, but may now proceed to point out how these various 

 component parts of a temple are grouped together, so as to com- 

 pose a whole. 



The simplest and most general arrangement, at least for smaller 

 temples, such as those found in villages, and some of the larger 

 ones, as that for instance at Tanjore, is that of a vimana and its 

 portico standing in the centre of a stpiare court, surrounded by 

 cloisters and inclosed by a high plain wall, with one gopura in 

 front of the entrance to the temple. Few temples, however, 

 except of the smallest class, are of so simple a form, but generally 

 they are surrounded by a second inclosure, the sides of which are 

 parallel to those of the first; say at the distance of about 100 feet. 

 This is likewise surrounded by cloisters, and incloses several 

 minor shrine.s, or temples dedicated to inferior deities. Generally 

 it possesses two gopuras, the one in front of that belonging to the 

 inner inclosure being generally connected with it by a handsome 

 colonnade or mantapa, with an aisle at right angles to the princi- 

 pal one. The other gopura is placed behind the temple, and is oi 

 less importance than the one in front. Almost all the great 

 temples of India possess a third inclosure with four gopuras, one 

 on each face, thus making up seven in all. Besides minor shrines 

 and Brahmins' residences, the outer court generally contains the 



