ANCIENT REMAINS, No. IX.

Aurungzeb's Mosque, near Bisheswar Temple.

The mosque built by the Emperor Aurungzeb on the foundations of what is commonly, though erroneously, regarded as the old or original Bisheśwar temple, is of interest, not for its own sake,-for, notwithstanding its lofty appearance, it is a structure without any striking beauty in its own right, but on account of the ancient remains with which it is associated and from the materials of which it has largely been constructed. The courtyard consists of a terrace, raised some five feet above the level of the temple-quadrangle in the centre of which it is situated, occupying a large portion of the area. On walking round the quadrangle, and examining the retaining wall of the terrace, one's attention is arrested by peculiar openings, or niches, in the wall; and, in these, architraves, and capitals, and parts of pillars on which they rest are visible; though, in some places, the openings are filled with earth, almost up to the level of the capitals. Proceeding from west to east, the ground gradually declines; until, after descending four steps, and arriving opposite a large stone bull, or Nandi, the opening in the terrace becomes clear, and a portion of a cloister, such as surrounded a Buddhist monastery, comes into view, and reveals the character of the entire series. The cloister is now divided into a number of small chambers, supported by genuine Buddhist pillars, severely simple in their type, and, without doubt, of considerable antiquity. Formerly, a succession of such cloisters encompassed not less than three

sides of the existing terrace, which must, consequently, date from the same epoch. It would be desirable, if the consent of the Mohammedans could be obtained, to remove the external wall, by which these cloisters have become almost completely hidden, in order to ascertain their extent and condition.

This series of cloisters formed, we conjecture, the lowermost story of a Vihára or Temple-Monastery which once enclosed the entire space occupied by the terrace, and rose to the height of, probably, two or three storeys above it. On the southern side stood the chief temple, which, on the suppression of Buddhism, passed into the hands of the adherents of another religion, who transformed it according to their own tastes. The mosque on this side is altogether composed of the remains of an ancient temple, of large dimensions and of very elaborate workmanship. The high pillars, moreover, on its northern face have been transferred from the same spacious building. These remains are, chiefly, Hindu; and it is unquestionable that the edifice, which was destroyed in order to make way for the mosque, was an old temple of Bisheś war. An excellent ground-plan of this temple, prepared from a minute examination of the extant remains, was drawn by Mr. James Prinsep, and published, by him, in his "Views of Benares." The remains are, however, not entirely Hindu. Some portions, judging from the elaborate ornamentation of certain details which it was the custom of the Buddhist architects to leave plain, seem to be of Jaina origin, and to have been appropriated by the builders of the Hindu temple. If this

supposition be correct, the mosque, with its terrace, exhibits a singular architectural anomaly; and, furthermore, points to no fewer than four religious communities, namely, Buddhist, Jaina, Hindu, and Mohammedan. The square terrace pillars, with their cruciform capitals, are so simple in structure, that, compared with the highly carved and decorated pillars of medieval and later Buddhist times, they almost belong to another style, which might be called early Buddhist or Hindu, accordingly as one or other of these communities is supposed to have invented it. It is not our object to discuss the interesting and important topic, who were the first Indian sculptors and builders of permanent edifices; yet it is one that, by and by,-when materials have been sufficiently accumulated, which they have not been at present, must be thoroughly investigated. After such investigation, the antiquity and, possibly, the origin of these terrace-pillars may be definitely ascertained.

ANCIENT REMAINS, No. X.

A'd-Bisheswar Temple and neighbouring Mosque.

Ad-Bisheswar is the name of a lofty temple situated a short distance from Aurungzeb's mosque just referred to, and in sight of it; and it is held, by some persons, to be the most ancient temple of this deity. Only a doubtful interpretation of its name may bear out this supposition; for the temple itself, from the pinnacle to the base, has nothing really ancient about it. On the eastern side of the enclosure, the ground takes a sudden rise of eighteen feet, forming a terrace manifestly

of artificial construction. On this side there is a retaining wall of stone masonry, which is wanting on the southern side of the terrace, where there is only an earth bank. The other two sides of the terrace are covered with buildings, so as to prevent the exact determination of its boundary in these directions. On the flank contiguous to the A'd-Bisheśwar enclosure stands a mosque, erected some eighty years ago or less, but not finished, for want of money. It was built of stones found on the spot, with new Chunar slabs added. The terrace existed before, with the buttress, and is, evidently, of ancient construction.

The building is in two divisions,-each of which is twenty-three feet and a half in length,-connected together by a massive wall, five feet and a half thick, composed of large blocks of stone. This wall projects considerably beyond the building into the courtyard to the east, and has the appearance of a huge buttress ; but what its object is,-seeing that the mosque, which is entirely of stone, is amply sustained by its columns and walls, and requires no such additional support,-it is hard to say. Possibly, the buttress is pierced with a staircase, that led, formerly, to an upper story which the buttress supported; and the Mohammedan architects, not caring to remove the massive prop, have retained it in the mosque. They appear, moreover, to have confined themselves chiefly to materials lying upon the spot; as, in three places, carved pillars, similar to those sustaining the centre aisle, have been adopted as architraves. There are fourteen columns in the interior of the mosque, which are peculiarly, but not exten

sively, carved, and are crowned with ornamented capitals. The western wall is strengthened, externally, by three rounded buttresses, which are of the Paṭhán dynasty, like those found at Jaunpore, and were built at the same period. They did not exist in the Buddhist period, and were added as much for ornament as for strength. All the mosques about old Delhi have them.

There is no doubt, in our mind, that the A'd-Bisheswar temple stood on this site, and was destroyed by the Mohammedans, who, as usual, transferred its stones to their own mosque. The neighbouring temple bearing this name the Hindus built, with the connivance of their friends, the Mohammedans, of course for the purpose of perpetuating the worship of their old idol, A'd-Bisheswar. Yet, while allowing that the edifice which stood on the site of the present mosque when the Mohammedans took possession of it was the temple of A'd-Bisheswar, we are, nevertheless, equally certain, that the primitive building was of a Buddhist character. We were inclined, at one time, to imagine, that, from its proximity to the Buddhist Vihára (No. X.) just described, it must have been a part of that monastery; but two reasons have led us to abandon this idea. One is, that a separate terrace, of extensive dimensions, was appropriated to this structure, whatever it was, and that, between this terrace and that of No. X., the ground is depressed, corresponding to the depression of all the neighbouring soil; and the second is, that the styles of architecture of the ancient buildings, upon or around the two terraces, differ exceedingly. We are led to conjecture, therefore, that the original structure was Buddhist, but later, in