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 170

Structural Temples of the Caulukyan Period
115 of the planets over the lintel; the jambs are also carefully sculptured.
In the Mandapa, which is 5.1 ms. square, are four pillars measuring 2.9 ms. to the top of the bracket, and with a square block sculptured below the bracket, and six pillars apparently inserted for the sake of uniformity only, for they are not of any structural use. The shafts 2 ms. high support a plinth 0-2 m. high, on which stands a block carved with colonnettes at the corners, and crowned with an āmalaśīlā-shaped member, the faces of the block being sculptured with figures of men and elephants. The total height is 2.6 ms. Among the four-armed figures on the brackets of the columns one is a female, and one has a face on the abdomen (as at Aihole). In the window recesses are also pilasters with four armed figures in the bracket capitals. The pillars and pilasters all are of (the Hindu) broken square form.53
The shrine door is elaborately carved with two rows of figures on the frieze, Ganpati on the lintel, and the jambs richly ornamented.
The area behind the central one is roofed with large slabs carved with 16 female figures linked in one another's arms in a circle, with the legs crossed and turned towards the centre. Each holds a rod or bar in either hand, the left hand being bent down and the right up, and so interlaced with the arms of the figures on either side. The roofs of the three aisles, at the sides and in front of the central area, are very prettily carved with flowered ribs, and three horizontal bands inclusive of that from which they spring. 54
This temple faces the west. Of the three small temples to the west of it, two face east and one to north. The last has been a very small Vaisnava temple, but only a fragment of the
53. AKK. p. 214. 54. AKK. p. 214.