Temples In India-1.pdf - Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan

VIVEKANANDA KENDRA PATRIKAMoreover, the similar temple-architectureof Bengal exercised no mean influence onthe monuments of Tripura.But the importance of Tripura temples doesnot lie in the hut-shaped superstructurealone. It is the crowning which gives themonuments of Tripura a novel and unusualform in Indian architecture. As notedabove, hut-type structures are frequentoccurrence in India, especially in EasternIndia architecture, but a stupa withcomponent members is a very uncommoncrowning in Indian monuments. Nostructural analogue of the type existsanywhere in India. Among few temples atPegan in Burma-Abeyadana, Patothamaya,Nagayon, Paya-thonju and NathlaungKyang, each shows a complete stupa asthe upper element, though tiered roof ofthe Pagan examples has been replaced bythe charchala roof in our edifices. TheseBurmese monuments may hence beconsidered as the structural counterpartsof the temples of Tripura. At the same timeit shows extension of religious tolerationon the part of a Hindu kingdom where anidiom, especially associated with Buddhism,is used in Brahmanical edifices.Stupa-sirsha temples were not unknown inEastern India as is evidenced from theillustrations of Cambridge Universitymanuscript of the AstasahasrikaPrajnaparamita copied in the Newar Samvat135/A.D. 1015, though in the absence ofstructural shrines, it is difficult toreconstruct the history of such type ofmonuments. Since the 11 th century nothinghas been heard about this type of shrines.How was it possible to revive the style ina remote corner of the Indian subcontinent,after a pretty long time? In theTEMPLE INDIAfollowing may be found an explanation.The stupa-sirsha temples, as illustrated inthe Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita, weremost probably associated with Buddhismof Tantrik affiliation in Bengal. From thisterritory the architectural form seems tohave spread to Burma and Java, where itspopularity is amply illustrated by numerousfamous edifices of this type, notwithstandingtheir local elements. With therevival of Brahmanism in the Sena period,this stupa-sirsha type became obsolete inEastern India, but was continued in Burmaup to the 12th-13th century, as evidencedfrom magnificent edifices of the countrymentioned later. After the disastrous fallof Burma in the 13th century, the countrysank into chaos and disorder and ultimatelyall artistic activity with Indian affinity cameto a stand-still and the Indian influencewas superseded by the culture of savagetribes from the north. Moreover India, thesource of all cultural activity in South-eastAsia, was herself dominated by Muslims andall her artistic activities fell into stagnation.In this period of chaos and disorder in bothcountries, the Indo-Mongoloids of North-Eastern India came to power and graduallythey came within the fold of Hinduism. Itis presumable that artists and architectsmigrated to India from Upper and LowerBurma via Assam and Chittagong- Tripurarespectively. The late mediaeval art ofTripura as well as other regions of North-Eastern India has a close affinity with thatof Burma and it is assumed that the rulersof Tripura were somehow rather directlyrelated with Burma. Perhaps along withsculptors, architects took shelter in Tripuraand received active patronage from thecourt. Significantly enough, nowhere in97