Samipya 2007 Vol 24 Ank 01 02

Author(s): R P Mehta, R T Savalia
Publisher: Bholabhai Jeshingbhai Adhyayan Sanshodhan Vidyabhavan

Page 18

pillars, basements (of shrine and mandapa) and door-frames of the Cālukyan temples are lavishly decorated with the carvings of leaf and flower creeper especially encircled within a circular or semi-circular frame.
Another design, clisely related with the preceding one is what is known as the pot and foliage motif. It is almost an invariable feature of the Cālukyan temples. There a conventionalised vase, from which spring forth buds and flowers and a broad indented leaf falling down on either side of the vase, decorated usually the middle part and capitals of short pillars of the mandapa. Exmaples of these may be taken from the temples at Sūnak, Sandera, Kasārā, Modherā, Somanātha, Sejakpur and Ghumali.
The design which is called 'string course, scroll or creeper' is essentially flora. Among the pre-Cälukyan temples it is found to a certain extent on the door frame of the Kadvār temple, where it is mixed up with a diamond design.
The door jambs of the shrine of temples at Modherā, Delmāl, Kasārā, Lovarali, Vadanagar etc. are lavishly decoarated with running flower and creeper pattern.
The square, round, lozenges adorned with flowers and creepers and encircled by rosery are the composite form of floral and geometrical designs. 12
Footnotes 1. We find human figures on the friezes on the stupa at Sănci, Mathurā and Amarāvati
and early Buddhist caves. (Archaeology of Gujarat, D.S. Sankalia) 2. A.G. p. 117
3. A.G. p. 121 4. The structural temples of Gujarat (p. 468) 5. Kāmaśilpa, III, p.. 31.34.
According to the Visnudharmottara Purana (Ad. XLIII, 11-12) all the nine raras including the srngara may be illustrated in a temple. The Mayamata (XXXIV, 12) and the silparatna (XLVI, 8-9) describe that the decorative sculptures in temples must ilustrate all the three vargas or puruşārthas and include scenes of life and postures of dancing. The Samarāngana Sūtradhāra (LXXXII, 1-3) also corroborates it. The nude figures are forbidden in the residential buildings (see śilparatna XLVI, 9-10) and Vāsturatnākara, Gșhopakarņa, Prakarana 77-78)
Itihasa ni Kedi, pp. 87 ff. 8. "Patthara Bole Chhe" (51) by Dr. Priyabala Shah. 9. AG pp. 122-123. 10. For all such figures are : Burgess AKK Plt. XLIII p. 180 (brackets from the pillars
in Navalakhā temple. Ghumali). 11. Virtā has a neat little temple of Nilakantheśvara (8 kms. N.W. of Gorad, Mehsana).
(pl. 195) K.F. Sompura). 12. Dr. K. F. Sompura, The structural temples of Gujarat, (p. 473-74).
Constructive Decorative Sculptures - A Part of Temple Architecture
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