Report with photographs of the repairs executed to some of the principal temples...

Imprint: London: Waterlow and Sons Limited, printers, London Wall. 1903. Brown cloth-bound volume measuring 288 x 385 mm, with title stamped in gilt on upper board, unpaginated and containing 47 gelatin silver prints mounted on card, with 4pp. preface and brief letterpress descriptions of the temples included in the survey.In his preface Marmaduke Arnott, Executive Engineer in the Bengal Public Works Department, records the genesis of the project to repair the major temples at Bhubaneshwar and some of the cave temples at nearby Udayagiri: 'The restoration of some of the most famous temples of Bhubanesvar owes it origin to the visit paid in 1898 by the then Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, the late Sir John Woodburn. Struck with their dilapidated condition, and realising to the full their archaeological value, he ordered estimates to be prepared for putting the four principal ones, namely:- Bramesvar, Rajarani, Muktesvar, and Purusramesvar into good order. These estimates were duly prepared and sanctioned, and the work carried out between 1899 and 1901. At this visit also, he promised to give a contribution of Rs. 400 for three or four years towards the restoration of the great Lingaraj Temple, provided the Temple Committee, consisting of several Hindu gentlemen of the Cuttack and Puri Districts, contributed another sum of Rs. 400 yearly. This they agreed to do, and the repairs of this Temple went on concurrently with those of the Temples mentioned above. In December, 1900, Sir John Woodburn again visited Bhubanesvar, and, as a result of this second visit, he ordered the repair of the subsidiary Temples near Muktesvar, including that of Sidesvar and the four small temples in the compound of Bramesvar to be undertaken, together with the compound wall of the latter. Estimates were submitted, sanctioned, and the work put in hand, being fully completed in 1902. In December, 1899, also, the Secretary to the Government of Bengal in the General Department...had asked for estimates for repairing all the temples, tanks, caves, etc., borne on the list of Archaeological Remains in the Puri District, and orders were received in Bengal Government's No. 339A, dated January 1st, 1900, to prepare estimates for all such in the District. This was done, and on submission, they were forwarded to Dr. Bloch, the Archaeological Surveyor to the Government of Bengal, for his opinion as to carrying out the estimated work. He selected for repair the next most important temples and certain caves and tanks, and advised that the elephants flanking the steps of the 'Ganes Gumpha' at Udaigiri should be put into position again [prints 42-43]. He suggested, also, that a sunshade should be erected over the inscription cut on the face of the 'Hathi Gumpha' [prints 44-45]. These extra estimates were submitted in due course, and, after their sanction, the work on these and the other temples was completed in 1902. In August of this year, Sir John Woodburn paid his last visit to Bhubanesvar, and then ordered two small temples near Bramesvar, outside its compound, which were unsightly through disrepair, to be restored. In the descriptions that follow, the repairs to the temples are described, as far as practicable, in the order of their sanction, except that the work on the subsidiary temples, near Muktesvar (including Sidesvar) and Bramesvar is described with the work on these temples proper. Then follows the description of the repairs done to the Lingraj, next to Bhaskaresvar and Sari Deul temples, the Sahasra Linga Tank [prints 38-41], and finally that executed to the four caves (Gumpha'): Ganes and Hathi Gumphas on Udaigiri and Satghara and Tantua Gumphas on Khandagiri [prints 42-47.'With regard to the photographs of the temples before they were repaired, Arnott notes that 'it must be borne in mind that they were taken late in 1892, and there is, therefore, an interval of nearly seven years between this time and the period of first commencing the work, so that in reality the actual state of disrepair was somewhat greater than that shown in the photographs.' These earlier photographs are the work of the Bengal police officer William Henry Cornish (1840-1925), and a number of them are duplicated in the Indian Museum series of photographs (Photo 1002). Cornish's service record (IOR/V/12/127) notes that he was on special duty between 18 October and 17 December 1892, and this was presumably when these and other archaeological photographs in the district were taken. The later photographs, showing the temples after repair, are unattributed, although they may well have been taken by Arnott himself.

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