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

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Structural Temples of the Caulukyan Period circumambulatory passage around it. The latter was lighted by a large balconied window in each of its three sides away from the hall, and these formed a very pleasing feature in the general appearance of the building from outside. That at the back, or west side, has fallen and also have the three porches. It is quite possible that, like the temple of Sūrya at Modhera, this one may have had a Sabhāmaņdapa, or open hall, slightly in advance of the main entrance from which the beautiful ceiling in the Miapuri mosque may have been taken.141 The orginal roof which had fallen with the exception of the inner domical ceiling of the shrine, has been entirely rebuilt in a rough and ready fashion by the Mohmmadans, who raised the fallen pillars within and finished off the exterior of the roof with a large Muslaman dome and two stumpy minarates, thus converting it into a mosque. Of the original pillars and pilasters (in style of those in temples of Tejpāla on Mt. Abu) the surface carving has been obliterated. The interior of the shrine retained most of its domical ceiling. 142
The general architecture of the temple shows it to be rather later than that of the best period of that style, that is, the eleventh century when the Modhera, Rudramāla and Vimalashas' shrines were raised. This is particularly noticeable in the pillars which are more of type of those in the Tejapāla's temple at Abu. In the early part of the 11th cent. the Modhera type was universal and the pillars of that period
141. SMTK. Pits. XVIII-XIX. Here Fig. 230.
The excavations on the site of Somanatha temple have proved that the temple built by Bhimadeva was smaller in the size than Kumārpāla's of different plan and specifications. In its ground plan the nandikā's between Karņa (i. e. mūlarekhā) and pratiratha have been introduced, and the bhadra projection has been adorned with mukhabhadra, thus breaking the plan in Saptnāsikā projections (Vide Somanatha the shrine Eternal. fig. 2 facing p. 66). 142. SMTK. p. 15.