MARCH, 1873.]

ASIATIC SOCIETIES.

by as many Rājās. The peacocks and monkeys, with which the place abounds, enjoy the benefit of special endowments, bequeathed by deceased princes of Kota and Bharatpur. There are some fifty chhattras, or dole houses, for the distribution of alms, and extraordinary donations are not unfre quently made by royal and distinguished visitors. Thus the Rājā of Datia, a few years ago, made an offering to every single shrine and every single Brähman that was found in the city.” “But the foundation of all this material prosperity and religious exclusiveness was laid by the Gosäins, who established themselves there in the reign of Akbar. The leaders of the community were by name Rúpa and Sanātana from Gaur in Bengal. They were accompanied by six others; of whom three, Jíva, Madhu, and Gopāl Bhat, came from the same neighbourhood; Swāmi Hari Däs from Rájpúr in the Mathură district, Haribans from Deva-ban in Sahā

ranpūr, and Byås Hari Rām from Orchâ in Bundel khand. It is said that, in 1570, the emperor was in duced to pay them a visit, and was taken blindfold into the sacred enclosure of the Nidhban,” where such imarvellous vision was revealed to him, that he

was fain to acknowledge the place as indeed holy ground. Hence the cordial support which he gave to the attendant rājās, when they declared their intention of erecting a series of buildings more worthy of the local divinity. “The four temples, commenced in honour of this event, still remain, though in a ruinous and sadly neglected condition. They bear the titles of Gobind Deva, Gopináth, Jugal-kishor, and Madan Mohan. The first named is not only the finest of this parti cular series, but is the most impressive religious edifice that Hindu art has ever produced, at least in Upper India. The body of the building is in the form of a Greek cross, the nave being a hundred feet in length, and the breadth across the transepts the same. The central compartment is surmounted by a dome of singularly graceful proportions; and the four arms of the cross are roofed by a waggon vault of pointed form, not—as is usual in Hindu architecture—composed of overlapping brackets, but constructed of true radiating arches as in our Gothic cathedrals. The walls have an average thickness of ten feet, and are pierced in two stages, the upper stage being a regular triforium, to which access is obtained by an internal staircase. At the east en trance of the nave, a small narthex projects fifteen feet; and at the west end, between two niches and incased in a rich canopy of sculpture, a square headed doorway leads into the choir, a chamber some twenty feet deep. Beyond this was the sacrarium, flanked on either side by a lateral chapel ; each of these three cells being of the same dimensions as the

choir, and, like it, vaulted by a lofty dome. The ge

• The derivation of this word is a little questionable. It

is the local name of the actual Brindé grove, to which the

town owes its origin. The spot so designated is now of very

89

neral effect of the interior is not unlike that produc ed by St. Paul's cathedral in London. The latter building has greatly the advantage in size, but in the other, the central dome is more elegant, while the richer decoration of the wall surface, and the natural glow of the red sandstone, supply that relief and warmth of colouring which are so lamentably deficient in its Western rival.

“There must originally have been seven towers— one over the central dome, one at the end of each transept, and the other four covering, respectively, the choir, sacrarium, and two chapels. The sacrarium has been utterly razed to the ground, and the other six towers levelled with the roof of the nave.

Their

loss has terribly marred the effect of the exterior, which must have been extremely majestic when the west front with its lofty triplet was supported on either side by the pyramidal mass of the transepts, and backed by the still more towering height that crowned the central dome.

The choir tower was of

slighter elevation, occupying the same relative po sition as the spirelet over the sanctus bell in Western ecclesiology. The ponderous walls, albeit none too massive to resist the enormous thrust once brought to bear upon them, now, however much relieved by exuberant decoration, appear out of all proportion to the comparatively low superstructure. As a further disfigurement, a plain masonry wall has been run along the top of the centre dome. It is general ly believed that this was built by Aurangzeb for the purpose of desecrating the temple; though it is also said to have been put up by the Hindus themselves to assist in some grand illumination. In either case it is an ugly inodern excrescence, and steps should be at once taken for its removal. “Under one of the niches at the west end of the

nave is a tablet with a long Sanskrit inscription. This has unfortunately been much mutilated, but enough remains as record of the fact that the temple was built in Sambat 1647, i. e., A. D. 1590, under the

direction of the two Gurus Rūpa and Sanātana. The founder, Rājā Mān Siâha, was a Kachhwāhā Thäkur, son of Rájá Bhagawān Däs of Amber, founder of the temple at Gobardhan, and an ancestor of the present Rājā of Jaypſir. He was appointed by Akbar successively governor of the districts along the Indus, of Kābul, and of Bihār. By his exertions, the whole of Orissa and Eastern Bengal were re-an nexed ; and so highly were his merits appreciated at court, that, though a Hindu, he was raised to a

higher rank than any other officer in the realm. He married a sister of Lakshmi Nārāyan, Rājā of Koch Bihār, and at the time of his decease, which was in the ninth year of the reign of Jahāngir, he had living one son, Bhāo Simha, who succeeded him upon the throne of Amber, and died in 1621 A.D. f. There is a tradition to the effect that Akbar at the last, jea limited area, hemmed in on all sides by streets, but protect ed from further encroachment by a high masonry wall.

+ Wide Professor Blochmann's Ain-i-Akbari, p. 341. º