316 ON ORISSA PROPER 



ture with red paint. The material used for the construction of the tem- 

 ple is chiefly the coarse granite, resembling sandstone, found abundantly 

 in the southern part of C attack. The following- is a sketch of the plan 

 of it. The edifices composing and connected with the temple which are 

 very numerous, stand in a square area enclosed by a lofty stone wall, mea- 

 suring about six hundred and fifty feet on a side. A broad flight of 

 twenty-two steps leads from the Sinh Darwazeh or principal gate of en- 

 trance, on the east, to a terrace twenty feet in height, enclosed by a second 

 wall four hundred and forty-five feet square, on which occurs first the apart- 

 ment called the Bhog Mandap. In a line, and connected with it by a sort 

 of low portico (the Mukt Mandap), is the great antichamber of the tem- 

 ple called the Jagmohan, which adjoins and opens into the tower or sanc- 

 tuary. The tower itself rises to a height of about one hundred and eighty 

 feet from the terrace, or two hundred from the ground. The ground plan 

 is a square measuring thirty feet on a side. Most of the other principal 

 deities of the Hindoo Pantheon have temples at this place situated be- 

 tween the two enclosures. The eastern gate is flanked and guarded by co- 

 lossal figures of lions, or more properly griffins, in a sitting posture, and by 

 smaller images of the mythological porters Jaya and Vijaya resting on their 

 clubs, sculptured on the side posts. In front stands a column of dark 

 coloured basalt, with a base of the mineral resembling pot-stone, remarka- 

 ble for its light and elegant appearance and the beauty of its proportions, 

 which supports a figure of the monkey-god Hanuman. One might guess 

 that this is the work of artists of a different class and sera from those who 

 raised the temple of Jagannath, and the fact is really so, it having been 

 brought from the famous, but now deserted, temple of the sun at Kanarak, 

 about sixty years ago, by a brahmachari inhabitant of Puri, of great wealth 

 and influence. 



Some ingenious speculations have been hazarded upon the origin and 

 meaning of the worship of Jagannath and the causes of the peculiar sanc- 

 tity of the place, but amidst the conflicting and contradictory legends and 



