Plate 4 shows the carved stones that decorated the middle portion of each façade of the sikhara. As the photograph of a part of the temple of Brahmesvara at Bhuvanesvara reproduced on Plate 5 indicates, the style of decoration and particularly the scroll work with animal figures is Orissan and is evidently the work of Oriya artists. But the figure sculptures reveal a different artistic strain. In Plate 6 is reproduced a life size image of Śiva that was once set up in one of the main niches of the great temple of Khiching. The face of this image is lit up by a subtle smile and the expression is naturalistic. The upper part of the figure is well modelled, but the lower part is heavy and less carefully finished. Compare this image with the colossal image of Karttikeya in one of the main niches of the temple of Lingaraj at Bhuvanesvar in Orissa (Plate 7) and note the difference. This Kārttikeya is a masterpiece of Orissan sculpture. One notable point of difference between the two is the contour of the face. The face of the image of Karttikeya and of most other images installed in the temples of Bhuvanes var or fixed in their niches is of the same type, round and broad. But unlike the works of the contemporary sculptors of Orissa, the images of Khiching have more regular features. Among other specimens at Khiching I reproduce the magnificent torso of Durga Mahishamardini (Plate 8) engaged in killing the demon more out of pity as reflected in her face than in a spirit of revenge, and Nagis that capped the row of pilasters decorating the outer side of the sanctum of the great temple (Pate 9 and 10). Regular features are a characteristic of the products of the school of sculpture that flourished in Bengal and Bihar contemporaneously. But here also the difference is no less remarkable. In the standing images of the period found in Bengal and Bihar the pose of the lower half of the body is straight and stiff, and the back slab is decorated in quite different ways. These considerations lead to the conclusion that while the artists employed by the Bhanja chief for decorating the great temple of Khiching were imported from Orissa, for designing figure sculptures he must have employed an artist of genius probably brought up in the Gaudian (Bengal-Bihar) sohool who, as a consequence of his contact with the Oriya artists and aided by fresh inspiration from nature, founded a new school of art at Khiching. The chief who employed this master must have come from some other centre of culture than Orissa, for had he been a Oriya in origin he would probably have employed Oriva artists only and we should have at Khiching mere replicas of the temples of Bhuvanesvar than masterpieces of a new type. By Rai Bahadur Hira Lal, B.A. In one of my Nagpur University Extension lectures on the Kalachuri Kings of Tripuri I happened to mention in connection with Yuvarajadeva that "he gave three lakhs of villages to Golaki Matha." This information comes from an inscription in Malkapuram in the Madras Presidency. It records the history of Saiva teachers and of their influence on royal families of that period. In tracing out the origin it incidentally mentions the name of the Kalachuri king who endowed their matha or monastery with a gift of three laks of villages. It begins by saying that there was the country known as the Dahalamaṇḍala situated between the rivers Bhagirathi (i.e. Ganges) and Narmada and in it was a line of Saiva teachers whose founder was Durvāsā, In this line appeared Sadbhāva Śambhu who received from the Kalachuri king Yuvarajadeva as a bhikshā or gift a province, in which there were three lakhs of villages. This teacher founded a monastery called Golaki Maṭha and transferred the province for the maintenance of the matha. From this it is clear that Sadbhava Sambhu was a contemporary 1 अस्ति विश्वम्भरा सारः कमलाकुल मन्दिरम् । 1 Res.J. |