1848.] Essay on the Avian Order of Architecture. 269 



The change from gloomy dark to brilliant light, 

 Was instantaneous : — then from peak to peak, 

 Through the whole length of Kashmir's happy vale, 

 The setting sunbeams, from that canopy, 

 Reflected, over hill and stream and tree 

 Poured downward such a blaze of golden light, 

 As filled the heart with joy unspeakable. 

 There as the sun went down, the dusky pile, 

 First lost the gladdening brightness of his eye — 

 And hill and dale, temple and tower and tree, 

 After his retreating footsteps, one by one, 

 Sank neath the flowing wave of murky night. 



The vast extent of the scene makes it sublime ; for this magnificent 

 view of Kashmir is no pretty peep into a half-mile glen, but the full 

 display of a valley sixty miles in breadth and upwards of a hundred 

 miles in length, the whole of which lies beneath the ken of the " won- 

 derful Marttand." 



23. — The temple is enclosed by a pillared quadrangle, 220 feet in 

 length by 142 feet in breadth, containing 84 fluted columns. This 

 number was, no doubt, designedly fixed by the later architect, and is 

 another proof of the dedication of the temple to the sun. For this 

 number, the famous chourdsi (84) of the Hindus is especially emblema- 

 tic of the sun, as it is the multiple of the twelve mansions of the eclip- 

 tic (typified by 12 spokes in his chariot wheel), through which he is 

 carried by his seven steeds in one year ; or it is the product of his seven 

 rays, multiplied by the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The 84 pillars are, 

 therefore, most probably intended for that number of solar rays. Thus 

 even the colonnade is made typical of the Deity to whom the temple is 

 consecrated. 



24. — The entrance or gateway stands in the middle of the western 

 side of the quadrangle, and is of the same width as the temple itself. 

 This proportion is in accordance with the ideas of Hindu architectural 

 grandeur : for the rules laid down by them, as quoted by Ram Raz, 

 give different proportions from six-sevenths to ten-elvenths of the 

 breadth of the temple, for that of each different style of gateway from 

 the most simple to the most magnificent. Outwardly the Marttand 

 gateway resembled the temple itself in the disposition of its parts and 

 in the decorations of its pediments and pilasters. It was open to the 



