1879.] V. A. Smith — Observations on some Chandel Antiquities. 295 



were never intended for the positions they now occupy. They do not 

 match with each other either in pattern or size. Some are propped up by 

 a block placed underneath, whilst others have a piece added to the top to 

 lengthen them. The thickness, the width and the patterns differ more or 

 less in all. This is never the case in temples which have not been restored. 

 The mechanical regularity with which the pillars and ornaments correspond 

 to each other in undisturbed temples is remarkable. But in the Ganthai 

 temple not only do the granite pilasters not match, but even the eight 

 sandstone columns are irregular.* There are four pairs of them, and the 

 decoration of each of these pairs has certain minute peculiarities, though 

 the general style of all is the same. The accompanying Plate XVIII will 

 illustrate our meaning, the several pairs of corresponding pillars being A and 

 B, C and D, E and F, and G and H ; and the reader will observe that some 

 of the pillars which match each other are in unsymmetrical positions. 

 That the restoring of old temples, and in many cases the absolute construc- 

 tion of new temples out of old materials, is constantly going on at Kha- 

 juraho is seen from the group of Jain temples east of Ganthai, where the 

 work oE building and repairing is so continual, that, with three exceptions, 

 viz., Jinanath, Parswanath and the shrine of the Colossus of Adinath, it is 

 difficult to say of any building that it is now as it originally stood. 



Some undescribed buildings in the Hamirpur District appear suffi- 

 ciently remarkable to deserve description, and we close this paper with a 

 brief notice of one group of them. For the plans of these temples, see 

 Plate XIX. The three temples now described are of small size, but, judging 

 from their shape, are doubtless Jain. They are situated (1) at Barsi Talao, 

 near the village of Pahra, 14 miles north-east of the tahsili town of 

 Mahoba ; (2) at Makarbai, 9 miles distant in the same direction ; and (3) 

 at Bamhauri, 4 miles south-east of Makarbai. This last village Bamhauri 

 is not now in the Hamirpur District, having been ceded to the native state 

 of Charkari after the mutiny. 



In these temples the shape is a rectangle, the sides of which face the 

 cardinal points of the compass, with a sanctum in the middle of the western 

 side, opposite to which is the entrance porch. 



The roof, which is low, is supported internally on eight short pillars 

 vei'y simply ornamented, and surmounted by plain capitals over which are 

 placed the stone beams which support a perfectly unornamented ceiling. 

 Over the sanctum was a sikhara or steeple, which at Bamhauri is still stand- 



* The accounts of General Cunningham and Mr. Fergusson seem to us to ex- 

 aggerate the beauty of these pillars, and indeed to attach to this Ganthai temple 

 much more importance than it deserves. 



