1848.] Essay on the Avian Order of Architecture. 263 



which I translate thus : — 



" This benefactor likewise built an enclosure of polished stone around 

 the wonderful temple of Marttand, and the town of Drdkshdsphita, 

 (abounding-in-vines)." The compound word akhanditasma is rendered 

 "solid stones" by Troyer, but although it means "unbroken" or "un- 

 cut," it also signifies "without crack or flaw" — and I have therefore 

 translated it by "polished" to make the description agree with the 

 actual peristyle alluded to, of which the walls are not solid, while the 

 stones are certainly polished. 



This statement refers to the celebrated Lalitaditya, who reigned over 

 Kashmir from A. D. 693 to 729, or certainly 200 years after the latest 

 date to which the erection of the temple itself can be attributed. This 

 long interval is sufficient to account for many improvements of style 

 which are observable in the colonnade, and more especially in the mould- 

 ings of the bases and capitals. The practice of constructing enclosures 

 around the old existing temples, as well as of repairing and re-building 

 the ruined ones, would appear to have been less uncommon in Kashmir 

 than in India. Thus we find that Asoka* built a stone enclosure 

 around the old brick temple of Vijayesa ; and that Didda Ranif repaired 

 the surrounding walls of ail the temples that had suffered by age or 

 fire, and erected stone enclosures around other temples. 



1 1 . — The mass of building now known by the name of Mat an or 

 Marttand, consists of one lofty central edifice with a small detached 

 wing on each side of the entrance ; the whole standing in a large quad- 

 rangle surrounded by a colonnade of fluted pillars with intervening 

 trefoil-headed recesses. The central building is 63 feet in length — by 

 36 feet in width at the eastern end, and only 27 feet in width at the 

 western or entrance end. It contains three distinct chambers, of which 

 the outermost one, named Arddha-mandapa, or the "half temple," 

 answering to the front porch of the classical fanes, is 18 feet square. 

 The middle one, called antardla, or "mid temple," corresponding to the 

 pronaos of the Greeks; is 18 feet by \\ feet; and the innermost one 

 named (jarhha-griha or "womb of the edifice," the naos of the Greeks, 



* Raja Tarangini, B. 1-— v. 105. 

 t Ibid. B. 6.— v. 307. 



