Note 441 — Chapter II · ORISSA.

News has just reached this country of a curious accident having happened in this temple. Just after the gods had been removed from their Sinhasan to take their annual excursion to the Gundicha Nûr, some stones of the roof fell in, and would have killed any attendants and smashed the gods had they not fortunately all been absent. Assuming the interior of the Bara Dewul to be as represented (Woodcut No. 124), it is not easy to see how this could have happened. But in the same woodcut the porch or Jagamohan of the Kanaruc pagoda is represented with a flat false roof, which has fallen, and now encumbers the floor of the apartment. That roof, however, was formed of stone laid on iron beams, and looked as if it could only have been shaken down by an earthquake. I have little doubt that a similar false roof was formed someway up the tower over the altar at Puri, but formed probably of stone laid on wooden beams and either decay or the white ants having destroyed the timber, the stones have fallen as narrated.

A similar roof so supported on wooden beams still exists in the structural temple on the shore at Mahavellipore, and, I have no doubt, elsewhere, but it is almost impossible to get access to these cells when the gods are at home, and the places are so dark it is equally impossible to see, except when in ruins, how they were roofed.