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.
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