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The Temples in Kumbhariya
liveliness (Plate 45). The lower facia of the lintels forming the central octagon is ornamented with looped vine design with inclosed birds, the tantraka above shows plain ratnas, diamonds. At joining points, where lintels meet, the sandhipālas are concealed by panelled blocks sheltering Vidyādevīs/Yakṣī figures. Since the hall is slightly rectangular, the central circular Sabhāmandāraka vitāna leaves out crescent-shaped soffit-area at the northern and southern end, each of which is filled with nicely executed arabesque design (Plates 46, 47). In the elevation of the vitāna, also metaphorically termed 'karotaka' or (inverted) bowl, which is about 16 ft. 9 in. in diameter, there is first a grāsapattī or a file with large projecting grāsa-heads, indeed in fairly high relief than is usually met with in this situation; next comes the karnadardarikā followed by a rūpakantha bearing 16 brackets for supporting the Vidyādevī figures which, however, have disappeared. While 14 of these brackets are of the usual vidyādhara type showing at their faces well-rendered vidyādhara (and even gandharva) figures in the period-style (Plates 53, 54), the pair at the southern bhadra shows confronting figures of Negamesa, an unusual feature, the presence of which will shortly be explained. The intervals between the brackets are at most places filled by three discretely placed niches bearing divinity figures, the exception being the north and south sides where, depicted in each instance, is the seated figure of Gajānta-Lakşmi or Abhiseka-Lakşmi. Next comes a single gajatālu course followed by a minor ratnapattī, then is a course showing large kolas in series followed by three consecutive and receding but unique three-layered kola courses where the first two recessed and stepped in layers are trilobed, the last one is having a single lobe. While the kolas of the first belt have cipp7-borders showing petal-carving, and their vajraśộnga or the accented junction area—where two semicircular kola-coffers meet-is filled with grāsamukhas (Plates 53-55), the multiple stratified kolas in the next two successive strata mentioned in the foregoing are, however, devoid of this decoration (Plates 50, 51). And finally a huge central lambana-pendant consisting of four succeeding and progressively diminishing kola-layers terminating in a long padmakesara or staminal tube (Plates 49, 50, 52). This vitāna, though not large compared to several other medieval examples known from Gujarat and Rajasthan, creates an impression of vastness and depth. It is, perhaps, the earliest surviving karotaka class of vitānas of the Sabhāmandāraka specification in all western India.
The four triangles left out at four corners of the nave's rectangle by the formation of the central circular vitāna are filled by large grāsamukhas framed within
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