Martand: View of temple from the east
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Fergusson, James
Photographer: Arthur Llewellyn Basham
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The central shrine is placed in the middle of a rectangular court with a surrounding cellular peristyle 220 x 142 feet in dimension. It was built by King Lalitaditya in the middle of the 8th cent. Special is the addition of a portico to the central building for special rites in conjunction with the worship of the sun. Between portico and cella is another small chamber corresponding to the pronaos of a Greek temple. The shrine was originally covered by a pyramidal roof, and attained a height of c. 75 feet. The massive decoration of its exterior contains elements specially typical of the architecture of Kashmir. On each of the four facades is a pediment supported on fluted pseudo-Doric pilasters enclosing a trefoil arch that originally held the statue of a deity. (Rowland, p. 120) Late Roman-Syrian architecture combined with Bengali forms and late Gupta sculpture (Goetz, p. 142)
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Archives Series
Basham Collection
Date created
1910
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This item is provided for research purposes. Contact the Australian National University Archives at butlin.archives@anu.edu.au for permission to use.
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