1848.] Essay on the Avian Order of Architecture. 249 



bution of a new name even to an old locality ; and as the name of San- 

 dhimana still clings to the hill, we must perhaps rest content with the 

 assumption that such was the fact : and that the temple of Jyeshtes- 

 wara on its summit was most probably built by Jaloka about 220 B. C. 

 In this case the ruins which exist just below the temple may be the 

 remains of that named Sandheswara. They are mentioned by Vigne,* 

 who likewise considered them to be the remains of a temple. 



4. Vigne also assigns the building of the upper temple to Raja 

 Gopaditya ; but the Raja Tarangini\ merely states that he erected a 

 Jyeshteswara upon mount Gopa, which may be, and probably was, only 

 another name for the Takht-i-Suliman : but of this we have no evidence. 

 Now Gopaditya reigned from A. D. 238 to 253. It is quite possible 

 therefore that the temple of Jyeshteswara may have been either repaired 

 or rebuilt by Gopaditya, who at the same time may have imposed his 

 own name upon the hill. 



5. The situation is a noble one, and must have been amongst the 

 first throughout the whole valley which was selected as the position of 

 a temple. It stands one thousand feet above the plain, and commands 

 a view of the greater part of Kashmir. 



6. The plan of this temple is octagonal, each side being 15 feet in 

 length. The entrance, the back, and the two flank walls are perfectly 

 plain ; but the other four walls are broken into a succession of salient 

 and re-entering angles, as shown in Plate IX. The light and shade 

 thus produced offer an agreeable variety to the bald massiveness of the 

 other walls. The height of the original temple cannot now be ascer- 

 tained,;}; as the present roof is a modern plastered dome which has, I 

 believe, been built since the occupation of the country by the Sikhs. 

 The interior, which is a circle of 21^ feet in diameter, is perfectly plain 

 and very dark ; the entrance being a narrow passage only 3^ feet in 

 width. The walls are therefore 8 feet thick ; which I consider as one 

 of the strongest proofs of the great antiquity of the building. 



7. The basement of the temple has much the same style of mould- 

 ing as those of the Bhaumajo and Payach temples : but it differs from 

 them in being but slightly projected beyond the face of the wall. The 



* Kashmir, v. 2— p. 59. 

 t B. 1— v. 343. 



lie Section on Basements. 



2 N 



