BY THE ANCIENT HINDUS. 



245 



in any Indian ecclesiastical building. No architect, no one 

 who erects a sacred pagoda at his own cost, will dare to 

 represent in the chief carving of a conspicuous part of a 

 building, as a big stone column is no doubt, a subject which is 

 new and with which his countrymen were not familiar in 

 times of yore, or which are not mentioned in the Silpasastra, 

 or the works on arts. This is a custom which is well known 

 to every learned Brahman, and which is observed even now. 

 Occasionally one sees in temples and other buildings odd, 

 nay, even very indecent groups ; but these quaint figures, 

 which are by the bye never central ones, fulfil a special 

 object, namely, to catch the evil eye, and so to protect the 

 structure from any mischievous consequences. Whenever a 

 new private house is built, such a figure will be displayed 

 somewhere in a conspicuous place, and is generally removed 

 after it had been in its place for some time and thus fulfilled 

 its object. I have been assured on good authority that the 

 Maricipatala, a very ancient work on architecture, contains 

 a description of architectural designs relating to firearms, 

 but though I have written for this work, I am afraid I 

 shall get it too late to verify this statement. 136 



Under these circumstances I cannot agree with the state- 

 ment contained in Pergusson's excellent " History of Indian 

 and Eastern Architecture" (p. 370), that "the date of the 

 porch at Peroor is ascertained within narrow limits by the 

 figure of a sepoy loading a musket being carved on the base 

 of one of its pillars, and his costume and the shape of his arm 

 are exactly those we find in contemporary pictures of the wars 

 of Aurungzebe, or the early Mahrattas, in the beginning of the 

 18th century." I do not deny that the Sabhamandapa may be 

 comparatively new, but the figure of the sepoy with a musket 

 in his hand can in no way settle the age of the building. As to 

 the remarks concerning the costume of the soldier, there is 



136 See Lists of Sanskrit Manuscripts in Private Libraries of Southern 

 India, No, 5,610. lately published by me. 



