Any one who wishes to study the temple architecture of Kashmir cannot do
better than read Fergusson's _Indian Architecture_, wherein he will find
all the information he wants.
To the ordinary "man in the street" the ancient buildings of Kashmir do
not appeal, either by their aesthetic value or by the dignity of size.
Martand, the greatest, and probably the finest, both in point of grandeur
and of situation, I regret to say, I did not see; but the temples at
Bhanyar, Pandrettan, and Wangat resemble one another closely in design and
general insignificance. The position of the Wangat ruins, embosomed in the
wild tangle
"Of a steep wilderness, whose airy sides
With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild,
Access denied; and overhead up grew
Insuperable height of loftiest shade,
Cedar, and pine, and fir,"
and seated at the base of a solemn circle of mountains, gives the group of
tottering shrines a picturesqueness and importance which I cannot concede
that they would otherwise have had.
I do not remember ever to have seen it noted that all buildings which are
impressive by the mere majesty of size are to be found in plains and not
in mountainous countries. This is probably due to two causes. The one
being the denser population of the fat plains, whereby a greater concourse
of builders and of worshippers would be sustained, and the other being
the--probably unconscious--instinct which debarred the architect from
attempting to vie with nature in the mountains and impel him to work out
his most majestic designs amid wide and level horizons.
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