Structural Temples of Gujarat

SR No.: 006728
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kantilal F Sompura
Publisher: Gujarat University Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 868
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 31 MB

Page 160

Structural Temples of the Caulukyan Period
105
in two24. In the North and South cells are Vedis or asanas for images, but in the west or central one there is not, and it probably was occupied by the Lingam or emblem of Śiva.
In the West cell there are now two white marble figures of Surya, 25
On the outer walls of these cells the figures in the principal niches correspond with those of the doorways.
The central hall, surrounded by twelve pillars all standing on the low screen that encloses it, has a double architrave resting on the lintel that lie over the bracket capitals of the pillars; and as at Sunak it is the second that forms the regular octagon on which the dome rises in concentric circles of plain leaf mouldings, round the outer edges of which depend serrated fringes or drops. A lotus pendant hangs from the apex of the dome 26
The pillars are all of one pattern, the ornamentation on the shaft naturally reminds one of the pillars in some of the Brahmanical caves at Elora, but the bracket capital carved with four armed dwarfs differentiates them, and closer comparision makes it manifest that there is no indication here of relative age. This Kasara temple and that of Sunak are of the same period, and they can scarcely differ in age by more than fifty years from the Delmal and Modhera temples; the pillars on the screen wall of the Chauri in the latter, 27 are of the same style as here-but they alone would scarcely be a safe guide, and we have to take into account the whole style of the structure. The curves of the Sikhara are much the same as those on the Sunak temple, and the arrangement of the plan and roof of the Mandapa is quite the same.
24. AANG. Plt. XI, XCII-7.
25. AANG. Plt. LXXXVIII, figs. 4 & 5
26. AANG. p. 17.
27. AANG. P. 107: Pits: LXXXVIII-LXXXIX, 3; VII, VIII, LIII. LXXXV.