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CHAPTER XVII DECORATIVE SCULPTURES AND THEIR STRUCTURAL
FUNCTIONS
(i)
Treatment in the extant temples
The decorative sculptures of the temples forma part of temple architecture and serve to give charm and grandeur to the structures.
The structural functions imparted by decorative sculptures in temples are of three kinds :
(a) Constructive, (b) Representative, and Ornamental or Decorative.
(c) purely
(a) The pillars and pilasters with their brackets, the corniced steps of pyramidal roof etc. are the examples of the constructive decoration.
(b) The representative class of decorative sculpture is sub-divided into (i) Natural and (ii) Conventional. The flora and founa that have been faithfully copied from the nature comprise the natural class. In the temples of Gujarat less attention has been paid to this sub division. No scenes of forests, hills, villages, rivers, mountains etc. are found vigorously depicted but they are symbolically suggested by a tree, or a fish or a few lines suggesting water etc. The sculptures of gods and goddesses, historical personages, protrait sculptures, scenes from the Epics, the Purāņas, Hindu and Jain mythology, and scenes depicting social lives, customs, marriages, ornaments, garments and all the traditional representations belong to the conventional representative class.
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