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REVIEW
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M. A. Dhaky : The Indian Temple Traceries, American Institute of Indian Studies, D. K. Print World (P) Limited, New Delhi-2005, pp. 490 including 348 photo-illustrations and 55 line drawings. Price Rs. 3,600/-.
The jala/grille, in ancient and medieval Indian architectural studies, did not attract attention of the archaeologists and art historians, though in the domain of Islamic architecture, the screens for certain were subjected to deeper analysis, particularly in unravelling the geometry that underlay their construction. Now, the fullfledged work appearing in the rubric above on the subject by M. A. Dhaky opens up a new vista to the understanding and evaluation of the functional, creative, and aesthetic aspects of the jala in the context of Indian temples.
The well-decorated as well as simply but elegantly designed jālas in the ancient and medievel Indian architecture are in this Volume studied in the light of southern Indian vāstu texts on Dravidian architecture. The texts from north India, technical or otherwise, do notice jāla but give no particulars as to its forms, features, types and varieties. Hence the categorization of types and nomenclature et cetera are based on the Damila / Tamil tradition. However, it may sound paradoxical that the jāla is virtually absent in the buildings of the Pallavas, Pāndyas and even Cõlas (early phrase) in the Tamil country till one comes to the 12th century A. D. While the jāla played a major rôle in the buildings of the Calukya, Rāstrakūța, Cālukya and Hoysala periods in Karnataka and to some extent in the temples of Andhra deśa, particularly of the Kākatīya period, in north India it is available from the earlier times, in the Buddhist caves to be precise and, next in the Brahmanical and Buddhist structural temples. There, however, the earlier indigenous types began to be replaced by the Islamic geometric types from the late 16th Century onwards.
The textual portion on the subject of jāla is here documented thoroughly and from this the author has noted some 17 types of jālas. The categorization of types under Auspicious, Geometric, Architectural, Vegetal, Figurative, Composite, Sakhandaka and Unclassified are defined as well as treated with insight, dwelling as it also does on their formal aspects, origins and development. The svastika,
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