Note 72 — INDEX (continued 2)

Mr. Fergusson (Architecture, 219) places the Káshmir temples between a.d. 600 and 1200 and allots Mártand the greatest to about a.d. 750. The classical element, he says, cannot be mistaken. The shafts are fluted Grecian Doric probably taken from the Gandhára monasteries of the fourth and fifth centuries. Fergusson was satisfied (Ditto, 289) that the religion of the builders of the Káshmir temples was Nága worship. In Cambodia the Bráhman remains were like those of Java (Ditto, 667). But the connection between the Nakhonwat series and the Káshmir temples was unmistakeable (Ditto, 297, 665). Nága worship was the object of both (Ditto, 677–679). Imperfect information forced Fergusson to date the Nakhonwat not earlier than the thirteenth century (Ditto, 660, 679). The evidence of the inscriptions which (J. As. Ser. VI. Tom. XIX. page 190) brings back the date of this the latest of a long series of temples to the ninth and tenth centuries adds greatly to the probability of some direct connection between the builders of the Mártand shrine in Káshmir and of the great Nakhonwat temple at Angkor. ↑