Temples of Kumbhariya

Author(s): M A Dhaky, U S Moorty
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 99

Description of Temples
side show Cakreśvarī and Nirvāṇī (Plate 27) and at the west flank Ambikā and Sarasvati (Plate 26). The pair of what normally would have been guardian figures along with their niches at the fronts of the stairway-banisters of the porch, have been replaced by plain marble slabs during the renovations effected early this century or soon after. The mukhacatuṣkī above its stairway supports a very fine vitāna or ceiling which is structurally of the ‘ksiptotkşipta' order and decoratively of the Padmanābha class (Plates 31, 32), the one equally elegant behind it in the trika is of the complex ‘utkşipta' specification (Plates 35, 36). The lintels supporting these two ceilings show on their lower facia the creeper design, their tantraka or the upper facia displays what the silpīs of Gujarat call 'pāl ghāta', a double volute design. The vitānas in the bays flanking the one that carries the Padmanābha type are of the identical 'Mandāraka' class (Plates 33, 34); those that flank the central utkşipta type above the trika's central bay noted above are both of the identical Nābhicchanda class (Plate 37).
The trika's steps going downward lead to the colonnaded rangamandapa-hall (Plates 38-41) which is slightly rectangular along the north-south axis. Of the 12 pillars of the nave, all polished, ten are of the Misraka or composite-polygonal type with one singular feature in that the pair of the central pillars, north side, has dancing and music-making gandharvas set in the square janghā of the shaft (Plate 43) and above it, moreover, occurs an octagonal figural belt (Plate 44) not introduced in the set of pillars at the eastern and western sides. The entire shaft in turn, and in each case, rests over the kumbhikā-base, further having a short pīķha below for lending height to the pillar. The upper end of the shaft shows a round section carrying a figural belt followed by a taller chain-and-belt carrying small lumbikās or corbels at cardinal points; and finally comes the grāsa-kinkanikā belt. The pillars along the eastern and western row forming the square nave do not show figures at the janghā facets nor, as stated in the foregoing, the octagonal figural belt above it. They are thus having plain facets in the lower and middle section, the upper end displays a belt of gandharvas or vidyādharas in file (Plate 41) and rest of the parts above are similar to those of the aforenoted two pillars. There were the 'āndola' or undulant form of (what the Dravidian vāstuśāstras identify as) Citra-toranas inserted between the nave's bhadra-pillars in all four directions: only the one at the eastern side survives (Plate 42).
Each of the lintels supported by the nave's pillars displays a full-blown lotus in the centre of its soffit: one of these shows a touch of strength combined with