Monday, March 31, 2008

Brick Temples of Kalayat

It was another lazy and hot Sunday. This time I decided to have a ride in a Haryana Roadways bus on the most "EThnic NOrth INdian" route. The bus took me to Kalayat; a small town (village) in Kaithal District of Haryana.This village has one of the oldest existing bricks structures (Temples) in India dating back to 7/8th Century. These temples are the examples of early architecture of "Gurjara-Pratihara" Kingdom and the use of beautifully carved small bricks is magnificent.
Mortar has not been used in these carvings. The beautiful patterns of the bricks and carvings are still there on the walls of temples. Very first glance on the main temple takes you down the ages and the 19-20th century built temples give a bitter taste. What is important is the fact that none of the two olden temples matches any architectural patterns of the newer temples.