106 Notes and Queries suggested ly a Visit to Orissa. [No. 3. 



tems — it is singular that in Orissa, whatever the deity be that the 

 temple is dedicated to, the figures of the nine planets occupy a posi- 

 tion over the doorway. At the time when this temple was erected 

 — about the 12th century, — 'the worship of the Sun was still recog- 

 nised, the Sauras or Sun worshippers are frequently mentioned in 

 the life of Sangkara Acharya about the lOfch century. The agni- 

 liotra or sacrifice to fire was performed in Bengal at the close of last 

 century by Rajakrislma Kay of Nuddea ; lie is said to have been the 

 last person in Bengal who kept a fire perpetually burning, the 

 relics of a worship once common to the highlands of Persia and 

 the plains of India. This temple of the Sun now presents a com- 

 plete image of desolation, tens of thousands of bats occupy the in- 

 terior of the temple and a bear has taken up its abode amid the 

 ruins, while around is a waste of sand relieved occasionally by a 

 beautiful convolvulus or the spike grass which vegetates so easily 

 in the sand. 



The temple, however, in its obscene sculpture, shews what in- 

 fluence the Tantrik system had at that time gained in Orissa. 

 It was the time when Sivism had won its ascendancy by fire and 

 sword ; the temple of Jagannath dates from this same period as 

 do all the great Sivite temples in South India. How was 

 it the sculpture of this temple escaped the iconoclast hand 

 of Kala Pahar ? A stone which formerly topped the doorway is 

 20 feet long by 4£ square, its weight is 10 tons, the nine planets 

 are beautifully sculptured on it, near it lies a bar of iron 20 feet 

 long by 10 inches square weighing 1^ tons, close to it are three 

 figures in stone of lions rampant on the elephant 6^ feet high by 

 6 feet long.* The immense size of the stones and beauty of the 

 sculpture shew that the mechanical arts were in a forward state 

 eight centuries ago. Those enormous stones were brought from 



* At the time of James Prinsep, the Asiatic Society applied to the Govern- 

 ment for permission to remove some of the sculptures to the Asiatic Society's 

 Museum. No answer was sent, but the present Commissioner G. Cockburn, Esq. 

 is quite willing to grant it. Time and the influence of vegetation are rapidly 

 undermining a temple. A Surveyor lately proposed the stones should be used 

 up for surveying purposes. A few years ago the Raja of Khurda through mer- 

 cenary motives destroyed some of the finest parts of the temple. 



