Talk:Srinagar

Semi-protected edit request on 3 November 2024

I wanted to add one info that "Srinagar is one of the cities in India know as Venice of East" Ref: There is an wikipedia article which has list of cities which are referred as Venice of East, and that list has reference of Srinagar as well, so please include this information in this article as well. 1.39.200.21 (talk) 05:35, 3 November 2024 (UTC)

 Not done. It is already mentioned, with citations, in the section Srinagar#Tourism. If you want it placed elsewhere in the article also, please be more specific.--Commander Keane (talk) 05:41, 3 November 2024 (UTC)

8th century?

Temple at Boniyar, 1870s photo

The caption below File:Meruvardhanaswami Temple, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India (1981).jpg says, "An 8th century Hindu temple at Pandrethan, in the vicinity of present-day Srinagar." The temple has an arch with a keystone; there's actually more than one. Are we sure this didn't have some post-British restoration (in the manner of the Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya)? A gothic arch in Kashmir that anticipated knowledge the Muslims brought after 1200 CE, I could have bought, but the keystone ... hmm ... is a stretch. As always, it is time for user:Johnbod to weigh in. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 13:46, 16 February 2025 (UTC)

Hmmm. The info is better on Commons than here, & many pics there identify it as 10th-century, so I have changed to that. The long blurb on the Commons category, could make an article here if we had refs. Several photos in Commons from the 19th century show the temple in a very ruinous state, but with the "arch", which covers a relief of Shiva, and isn't really carrying much of a load. This isn't unknown in 10th-century India. See the similar temple at Boniyar illustrated at Sharada Peeth (& now here), and the courtyeard there. I haven't looked at books, but may do so later. There are numerous round-topped features in earlier Indian buildings, but only with the Muslims did it become a dominating structural feature - thus repeating the development between Ancient Greek architecture and its Roman progeny. Johnbod (talk) 15:37, 16 February 2025 (UTC)

Yes, Johnbod, they don't carry much of a load.

Thanks for that, especially for the picture above and the Sharada Peeth link. On more careful examination, I notice that the building blocks, or slabs, are stacked horizontally like in Corbel arches, whose WP article has this: (Corbel_arch#India).

Thanks also the Greek and Roman analogy. I learned something. Fowler&fowler«Talk» 16:19, 16 February 2025 (UTC)