Diary of a Pedestrian in Cashmere and Thibet Part 13

As this is the only temple situated in the old capital, there can be very little, if any, doubt that it is the very same building which now exists. For as it is surrounded by water, it was, of course, quite safe amid the fire, which reduced the other buildings to mere ma.s.ses of quicklime.

Baron Hugel calls the Pandrethan edifice a "Buddhist temple," and states that there are some well-preserved Buddhist figures in the interior. But he is doubly mistaken, for the temple was dedicated to Vishnu, and the figures in the inside have no connexion with Buddhism.

Trebeck swam into the interior, and could discover no figures of any kind; but as the whole ceiling was formerly hidden by a coating of plaster, his statement was, at that time, perfectly correct.

The object of erecting the temples in the midst of water must have been to place them more immediately under the protection of the Nagas, or human-bodied and snake-tailed G.o.ds, who were zealously worshipped for ages through Kashmir.

Marttand.

Of all the existing remains of Kashmirian grandeur, the most striking in size and situation is the n.o.ble ruin of Marttand.

This majestic temple stands at the northern end of the elevated table-land of "Matan," about three miles to the eastward of Islamabad.

This is undoubtedly the finest position in Kashmir. The temple itself is not now (1848) more than forty feet in height, but its solid walls and bold outlines towering over the fluted pillars of the surrounding colonnade give it a most imposing appearance.

There are no petty confused details; but all are distinct and ma.s.sive, and most admirably suited to the general character of the building.

Many vain speculations have been hazarded regarding the date of the erection of this temple and the worship to which it was appropriated.

It is usually called the "House of the Pandus" by the Brahmins, and by the people "Mattan."

The true appellation appears to be preserved in the latter, Matan being only a corruption of the Sanscrit Marttand maartta.n.d, or the sun, to which the temple was dedicated.

The true date of the erection of this temple -- the wonder of Kashmir -- is a disputed point of chronology; but the period of its foundation can be determined within the limits of one century, or between A.D. 370 and 500.

The ma.s.s of building now known by the name of Matan, or Marttand, consists of one lofty central edifice, with a small detached wing on each side of the entrance, the whole standing on a large quadrangle surrounded by a colonnade of fluted pillars, with intervening trefoil-headed recesses. The central building is sixty-three feet in length, by thirty-six in width.

As the main building is at present entirely uncovered, the original form of the roof can only be determined by a reference to other temples, and to the general form and character of the various parts of the Marttand temple itself.

The angle of the roof in the Temple of Pandrethan, and in other instances, is obtained by making the sides of the pyramid which forms it parallel to the sides of the doorway pediment, and in restoring the Temples of Patrun and Marttand I have followed the same rule.

The height of the Pandrethan temple -- of the cloistered recesses, porch pediments, and niches of Marttand itself -- were all just double their respective widths. This agreement in the relative proportions of my restored roof of Marttand with those deduced from other examples, is a presumptive proof of the correctness of my restoration. The entrance-chamber and the wings I suppose to have been also covered by similar pyramidal roofs. There would thus have been four distinct pyramids, of which that over the inner chamber must have been the loftiest, the height of its pinnacle above the ground being about seventy-five feet.

The interior must have been as imposing as the exterior. On ascending the flight of steps -- now covered by ruins -- the votary of the sun entered a highly-decorated chamber, with a doorway on each side covered by a pediment, with a trefoil-headed niche containing a bust of the Hindu triad, and on the flanks of the main entrance, as well as on those of the side doorways, were pointed and trefoil niches, each of which held a statue of a Hindu divinity.

The interior decorations of the roof can only be conjecturally determined, as I was unable to discover any ornamented stones that could with certainty be a.s.signed to it. Baron Hugel doubts that Marttand ever had a roof; but, as the walls of the temple are still standing, the numerous heaps of large stones that are scattered about on all sides can only have belonged to the roof.

I can almost fancy that the erection of this sun-temple was suggested by the magnificent sunny prospect which its position commands. It overlooks the finest view in Kashmir, and perhaps in the known world, Beneath it lies the paradise of the East, with its sacred streams and cedarn glens, its brown orchards and green fields, surrounded on all sides by vast snowy mountains, whose lofty peaks seem to smile upon the beautiful valley below. The vast extent of the scene makes it sublime; for this magnificent view of Kashmir is no petty peep into a half-mile glen, but the full display of a valley sixty miles in breadth and upwards of a hundred miles in length, the whole of which lies beneath "the ken of the wonderful Marttand."

The princ.i.p.al buildings that still exist in Kashmir are entirely composed of a blue limestone, which is capable of taking the highest polish -- a property to which I mainly attribute the beautiful state of preservation in which some of them at present exist.

Even at first sight one is immediately struck by the strong resemblance which the Kashmirian colonnades bear to the cla.s.sic peristyles of Greece. Even the temples themselves, with their porches and pediments, remind one more of Greece than of India; and it is difficult to believe that a style of architecture which differs so much from all Indian examples, and which has so much in common with those of Greece, could have been indebted to chance alone for this striking resemblance.

One great similarity between the Kashmirian architecture and that of the various Greek orders is its stereotyped style, which, during the long flourishing period of several centuries, remained unchanged. In this respect it is so widely different from the ever-varying forms and plastic vagaries of the Hindu architecture that it is impossible to conceive their evolution from a common origin.

I feel convinced myself that several of the Kashmirian forms, and many of the details, were borrowed from the temples of the Kabulian Greeks, while the arrangements of the interior and the relative proportions of the different parts were of Hindu origin. Such, in fact, must necessarily have been the case with imitations by Indian workmen, which would naturally have been engrafted upon the indigenous architecture. The general arrangements would still remain Indian, while many of the details, and even some of the larger forms, might be of foreign origin.

As a whole, I think that the Kashmirian architecture, with its n.o.ble fluted pillars, its vast colonnades, its lofty pediments, and its elegant trefoiled arches, is fully ent.i.tled to be cla.s.sed as a distinct style. I have therefore ventured to call it the Arian order -- a name to which it has a double right; first, because it was the style of the Aryas, or Arians, of Kashmir; and, secondly, because its intercolumniations are always of four diameters -- an interval which the Greeks called Araiostyle.

Extract from Vigne's "Travels in Kashmir."

The Hindu temple of Marttand is commonly called the House of the Pandus. Of the Pandus it is only necessary to say that they are the Cyclopes of the East. Every old building, of whose origin the poorer cla.s.s of Hindus in general have no information, is believed to have been the work of the Pandus. As an isolated ruin, this deserves, on account of its solitary and ma.s.sive grandeur, to be ranked not only as the first ruin of the kind in Kashmir, but as one of the n.o.blest among the architectural relics of antiquity that are to be seen in any country. Its n.o.ble and exposed situation at the foot of the hills reminded me of that of the Escurial. It has no forest of cork-trees and evergreen-oaks before it, nor is it to be compared, in point of size, with that stupendous building; but it is visible from as great a distance. And the Spanish sierra cannot for a moment be placed in compet.i.tion with the verdant magnificence of the mountain-scenery of Kashmir.

Few of the Kashmirian temples, if any, I should say, were Buddhist. Those in or upon the edge of the water were rather, I should suppose, referable to the worship of the Nagas, or snake-G.o.ds. The figures in all the temples are almost always in an erect position, and I have never been able to discover any inscription in those now remaining.

I had been struck with the great general resemblance which the temple bore to the recorded disposition of the Ark and its surrounding curtains, in imitation of which the Temple at Jerusalem was built; and it became for a moment a question whether the Kashmirian temples had not been built by Jewish architects, who had recommended them to be constructed on the same plan for the sake of convenience merely. It is, however, a curious fact, that in Abyssinia, the ancient Ethiopia, which was also called "Kush," the ancient Christian churches are not unlike those of Kashmir, and that they were originally built in imitation of the temple, by the Israelites who followed the Queen of Sheba, whose son took possession of the throne of Kush, where his descendants are at this moment Kings of Abyssinia.

Without being able to boast, either in extent or magnificence, of an approach to equality with the temple of the sun at Palmyra, or the ruins of the palace at Persepolis, Marttand is not without pretensions to a locality of scarcely inferior interest, and deserves to be ranked with them as the leading specimen of a gigantic style of architecture that has decayed with the religion it was intended to cherish, and the prosperity of a country it could not but adorn.

In situation it is far superior to either. Palmyra is surrounded by an ocean of sand, and Persepolis overlooks a marsh; but the temple of the sun in Marttand is built upon a natural platform at the foot of some of the n.o.blest mountains, and beneath its ken lies what is undoubtedly the finest and the most p.r.o.nONCE valley in the known world.

We are not looking upon the monuments of the dead. We step not aside to inspect a tomb, or pause to be saddened by an elegy. The n.o.ble pile in the foreground is rather an emblem of age than of mortality; and the interest with which we perambulate its ruins is not the less pleasurable because we do not know much that is certain of its antiquity, its founders, or its original use.

CHAPTER B

The Mystic Sentence of Thibet.

Explication et origine de la formule bouddhique: -- "Om mani padme houm" Par M. Klaproth. "Nouveau Journal Asiatique."

Les Tubetains et les Mongols ont perpetuellement cette priere dans la bouche. Les mots de cette inscription sont Sanscrits, et donnent un sens complet dans cette langue. En voici la transcription en devanagri: --

o.m ma.ni padme hu.m

"Om" est, chez les Hindous, le nom mystique de la divinite, par lequel toutes les prieres commencent. Cette particule mystique equivaut a l'interjection, OH! p.r.o.noncee avec emphase et avec une entiere conviction religieuse. Mani signifie LE JOYAU; Padma LE LOTUS. Enfin Houm est une particule qui equivaut a notre "AMEN." Le sens de la phrase est tres clair; "Om mani padme houm" signifie "OH! LE JOYAU DANS LE LOTUS, AMEN." Malgre ce sens indubitable, les Bouddhistes du Tubet se sont evertues a chercher un sens mystique a chacune des six syllabes qui composent cette phrase. Ils ont rempli des livres entiers de ces explications imaginaires.

Cette formule est particuliere aux Bouddhistes du Tubet.

Selon l'histoire de ce pays la formule Om mani padme houm, y a ete apportee de l'Inde vers la moitie du 7e siecle de notre ere.

La legende suivante traduite du Mongol contient des details sur la conversion du Tubet par le dieu Padma pani,[41] et sur l'origine des six syllabes sacrees, Om mani padme houm. Ce dieu est appele en Sanscrit "Avalokites' vara" ou "le maitre qui contemple avec amour;"

ce que les Tubetains ont rendu par "le tout-voyant aux mille mains et aux mille yeux:" Les Chinois on traduit le nom par "celui qui contemple les sous du inonde."

"Autrefois, quand le 'GLORIEUX-ACCOMPLI' (Sakya mouni ou Buddh) sejournait dans la foret 'd'Odma,' il advint un jour, qu'etant entoure de ses nombreux disciples un rayon de lumiere de cinq couleurs sort.i.t tout-a-coup entre ses deux sourcils, forma un arc-en-ciel, et se dirigea du cote de l'Empire septentrional de neige (Thibet). Les regards du Bouddha suivaient ce rayon, et sa figure montra un sourire de joie inexprimable. Un de ses disciples lui demanda de lui en expliquer la raison, et sur sa priere le glorieux-accompli lui dit:

" 'Fils d'ill.u.s.tre origine! dans le pays qu'aucun Bouddha des trois ages n'a pu convertir, et qui est rempli d'une foule d'etres malfaisans, la loi se levera comme le soleil et s'y repandra dans les temps futurs.

" 'L'apotre de cet Empire de neige apre et sauvage, sera le Khoutoukhtou' (Padma pani).

"Apres que 'Sakya mouni' eut p.r.o.nonce ces paroles, un rayon de lumiere, eclatant comme un lotus blanc, sort.i.t de son coeur et illumina toutes les regions du monde et se plongea dans le coeur du BOUDDHA INFINIMENT RESPLENDISSANT. Alors un autre eclat de lumiere sort.i.t du Bouddha resplendissant et se plongea dans la mer des fleurs de PADMA (lotus), et y transmit cette pensee du Bouddha, qu'il s'en eleverait et qu'il en naitrait un Khoubilkhan[42] divin, destine a la conversion de l'Empire de neige.

"Le Roi Dehdou qui etait parvenu a participer a la beat.i.tude de l'empire de Soukhawatee, voulant un jour offrir au Bouddha un sacrifice des fleurs, depecha quelques-uns des siens aux bords de la mer des PADMA (Lotus), pour y cueillir de ces fleurs. Ses envoyes apercurent dans la mer une tres grande tige de Lotus au milieu de laquelle il y avait un bouton colossal entoure d'une foule de grandes feuilles, et jetant des rayons de lumiere de differentes couleurs. Les envoyes en firent leur rapport au roi, qui, rempli d'etonnement, se rendit avec sa cour sur un grand radeau a la place de la mer ou se trouvait cette tige merveilleuse.