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MONUMENTS & SCULPTURE A.D. 1300 TO 1800
(PART VI
in the inscription it appears that this great patron of art and architecture was behind the erection of this grand caumukha temple. Indeed, the scheme is an ambitious one; it covers an area of over 3,716 square metres and consists of twenty-nine halls containing as many as four hundred and twenty pillars.
The plan, though apparently complex, is not cumbersome (fig. XXIII). When studied from the centre, i.e. the square sanctum containing a quadruple
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FEET FIG. XXIII. Ranakpur : plan of the Yugādiśvara temple. (After Cousons)
image of the deity, a geometric orderliness is clearly discerned. Being built on a westerly hill-slope, the jagati or adhişthāna had to be made very high along the western façade. On the top and at the centre of this platform, which is terraced inside, the square sanctum (müla-gabhāra or garbha-grha) is located with its four openings each through one of the four walls. Each of these openings of the sanctum leads to a ranga-mandapa (dancing-hall), which, in its turn, is connected with a two-storeyed mand apa, and across this mandapa to an impressive portal, also double-storeyed, called balana- or näli-mand apa as it covers the
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