page_title: Cultural Development of Kamarupa
section_title: Standard of architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Cultural Development of Kamarupa / Standard of architecture
caption_attribution_description: 9th-10th century lion-sculpture representing powerful Kamarupa-Palas, Madan Kamdev, Assam.
context_page_description: Kamarupa was most a powerful and formidable kingdom in Northeast India ruled by three dynasties from their capitals in Pragjyotishpura, Haruppeshwara and Durjaya. From these three capitals, its culture and influence spread over the entire region.
context_section_description: The capital of the Varman dynasty, around modern-day Guwahati, ceased to be the capital for more than three hundred years.
  In the late 19th century, the foundations of an old stone and brick enclosure wall in the eastern part of this town were dug up in order to find out stones to be broken into road-metal. Numerous carved and chiseled stones were broken into fragments to provide road metal. Some were preserved, not by the authorities, but by individuals taking interest in relics of antiquities. Since the establishment of the Kamarupa Anusandhan Samiti, some of these scattered relics have been collected and placed in the small museum of the Society. These collections include some sculptured images of deities, chiselled octagonal or hexagonal stone pillars, carved stone pedestals of pillars and finely carved panels containing figures of elephant-heads en face, lion-heads and human heads, used to decorate the outer side of the stone plinths of palaces or temples. The elephant-head en face is a peculiarity of Pragjyotisha as the kings invariably used the same emblem in the metal seals of their copper-plates. The rock-cut images of Vishnu and Ganesa found in or near Guwahati similarly go back to an early age. 
  
  The shrine of Pandu contains five rock-cut figures four of which represent Ganesa and one represents a female deity, probably Durga. Two more figures cut in the open rock below, facing the Brahmaputra river, represent, according to Mr. Dikshit, the sun-god and Indra respectively. Numerous cuttings on rock are to be seen also on the western slope of the Kamakhya hill. These include miniatures of temples of the shikhara type with small lingas enshrined in them and also rock cut niches containing lingas and figures or Ganesa. On the west side of the Kamakhya temple is a modern temple, known as Ghantakarna, into the basement of which stone fragments of older temples have been built. One of these fragments, as described by Mr. Dikshit, 
  is a beautifully carved frieze in which the band represents a series of garlands and the lower scroll-work, in which some very spirited representations of animals occur. Only four animal figures of the series viz a buffalo, a deer, a lion and a tiger are extant, but the quality of the art manifested in them is unsurpassed in Assam.
   This is also undoubtedly an ancient piece of sculptured art.
  Mr. R. D. Banerji thinks that these carvings belong to the seventh or the eighth century A.D. The ruins existing in or near Tezpur are much more extensive and varied in character. The Dr. Bloch conjectured that the modem civil stations of Guwahati and Tezpur stood upon large mounds " which contain the remains of two ancient cities." In 1906, while foundations were being dug for additions to the Deputy Commissioner's office in Tezpur, the excavators came upon the remains of an ancient stone building. A large number of carved and sculptured stones were discovered. The majority of then were transferred to the compounds of the European officers and the tea-planters club for the purpose of decoration. Some of them were subsequently brought to the Cole Park and arranged there. The Mr. R. D. Banerji, Superintendent, Eastern Circle, Archaeological Survey of India, wrote as follows in the Annual Report for the year 1924-25 :-
  On examination of the remains in the park at Tezpur and those preserved in the Planters' Association or Club at the same place I find that the carvings belong to three different periods of history and therefore must have belonged, at least, to three separate buildings. The most remarkable sculptures of the first group are two shafts of pillars at the entrance to the Planters' Club and a heavy lintel of a stone door-frame now lying in the public park. The shaft of one of these pillars is sixteen-sided, the upper end being ornamented with a broad band having kirtimukhas at the top and the lower with dentils. Over this band the shaft is round and appears to be lathe-turned like the upper parts of the Western Chalukyan columns of the Bombay Presidency. In the second pillar the upper part of th
caption: Madan Kamdev
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