X432/6(4)

Jagannatha Sabha.

JAGANNATHA SABHA*.

‘Plate IV. Plans A.’

This view, which is one of the first shewn to a stranger, must strike him with astonishment, whether he considers the vast labour which must have been bestowed on it in mere excavation, the rock being of red granite; or whether he considers the infinite pains which it must have taken to form the pillars and finish the numerous sculptural decorations: but when he is informed that the whole mountain is full of excavations, and that many are larger and still more elaborate, he is quite at a loss how to credit what he hears. The lower apartment of Jagannatha Sabha is too much choked up with earth, &c. to admit of any accurate description. On the left side of the area is an excavation rudely finished, and on the right, other small excavations alike choked up. The ascent to the upper story is by the flight of steps, No. 1,1. No. 2,2,2,2, The verandah. No. 3, The principal apartment. No. 4, ‘Sud’. No. 5, ‘Budh’, standing figures. No. 6, A large figure of ‘Jagannatha’, an idol sitting cross-legged, with his hands in his lap one over the other. 7 & 8, His two attendants, ‘Jaya’ and ‘Vijaya’, doorkeepers of ‘Vishnu’. There are many small figures of ‘Jagannatha’ on the walls; they all appear to be naked, and to have no other covering on the head than curled hair. The height of this excavation from the floor to the ceiling, is thirteen feet four inches.

* Or the temple of Jagannatha, Lord of the Universe.

Note.-This temple seems to have been the work of Bawdhs or followers of Budha, to whom they apply many of the epithets used by the Brahmans in speaking of Vishnu, of whom they say Budha, was an incarnation.