1848.] Essay on the Avian Order of Architecture. 253 



6. The temple of Bhaumajo is a square of 6£ feet, interior side, 

 with walls 1 foot 10 inches in thickness. The doorway is small and 

 low ; being only 2f feet broad, by 4f feet high. It is surmounted by a 

 pediment, of which the tympanum is occupied with the trefoiled deco- 

 ration common to all the Kashmirian buildings. In this instance how- 

 ever the trefoil is a mere ornament, as it rests upon the architrave 

 which covers the pilasters of the doorway, instead of being supported, 

 as is always the case in other examples, upon slender independent pilas- 

 ters of its own. Yet even in this temple, although the architrave is 

 unbroken, it is still somewhat retired in the central portion immediately 

 above the doorway. Its erection must therefore have preceded in date 

 that of all the other temples of Kashmir, in which the architrave is 

 always completely broken through, and the base of the tympanum is 

 reduced to two short returns of the horizontal mouldings of the pedi- 

 ment, each of which serves as a sort of upper abacus to the pedimental 

 pilasters. In the oldest of the Kashmirian buildings the architrave 

 forming the base of the pediment was no doubt preserved in its full 

 integrity ; but I was unable to discover a single example of so early 

 a date. 



7. Another peculiarity in this temple consists in the height of the 

 doorway pilasters, which are made flush with the top of the main 

 pilasters and walls of the building : whereas in all other examples the 

 crowns of the doorway pilasters are generally made of the same height 

 as the bases of the main pilaster capitals, or even lower, as at Marttand. 



8. Lastly, the pyramidal roof of the Bhaumajo temple is remarkable 

 for its extreme lowness, the height being only one half of the breadth 

 of the temple, instead of being exactly equal to it, as in most other 

 examples. Like them it is broken into two portions ; but it wants the 

 dividing band of ornament, which characterizes all the other temple- 

 roofs. In this respect the roof is an exact copy in stone of the sloping 

 timber roofs usual in Kashmir ; such for instance as those of the build- 

 ings in the Shalimar garden. I therefore consider this as an undoubted 

 proof of the antiquity of the temple. 



9. The entrance to the cave of Bhaumajo has a structural doorway 

 covered by two pediments ; one within the other, and each having a 

 trefoiled tympanum. The smaller trefoil rests upon the architrave of 

 the pilasters, which, as in the temple itself, is partially retired in 



