246 Essay on the Arian Order of Architecture. [Sept. 



materials I saw myself in November, 1847, when the ruins of Nur 

 Jehan's palace (itself built of Hindu materials) were daily being 

 removed for the construction of additional buildings attached to the 

 Sher-garhi. To the other cause I would attribute the disappearance of 

 the second pillar that within the last 25 years adorned the gateway of 

 the Wantipur temple. One only is now standing (see Plate XIX.), but 

 Moorcroft* in 1823 saw two, " each supporting masses of stone of 

 extraordinary size." 



10. From the description of these temples given by Ferishta it is 

 evident that some of them were much more perfect in his time than 

 any of those are which now exist. He describes them correctly enough, f 

 as being situated within quadrangles and resting upon raised terraces — 

 but they had transferred the " massive solid columns, each of a single 

 stone," from the peristyles to the temples themselves. The apart- 

 ments within, he adds, are small, being in general only 12 feet square, 

 and on the walls are sculptures of human figures, some representing 

 mirth, others grief. In the middle of one of the temples there is a 

 throne, cut out from the solid rock, on which is a minaret with a dome." 

 The last was most probably a Buddhist temple with an interior chaitya. 

 Unfortunately, no trace of this now exists, unless indeed the description 

 may be taken as bearing a distant resemblance to the Buddhist cave 

 temple of Bhaumajo. 



1 1 . The great size of most of the blocks of limestone and the enor- 

 mous massiveness of others, which have been used in the construction 

 of the Kashmirian temples, perhaps first led the people to ascribe their 

 foundation to the race of Pandu : for even now they gravely assert that 

 none but giants could have raised such ponderous masses. When I 

 assured them that I had seen blocks of twice the size of the largest 

 drawn upon carts in England, they politely shrugged their shoulders, 

 and seemingly assented, saying, " It may be so" (hoga), but they evi- 

 dently did not believe it. I am convinced however that none of them 

 knew the exact size of these blocks of limestone, and that they have 

 only a vague impression of their magnitude being much too great for 

 the weakened powers of man in this iron age to move. I measured 

 several of these stones— one lying to the right of the gateway of the 



* Travels, v. 2— p. 244. 

 t Briggs, v. 4— p. 446. 



