Pallava Architecture, Part I (MASI 17) c2.109

c2.109

The facade is in the same style as that of the first floor and has an open terrace in front commanding a beautiful view of the river and country beyond. At the northern end of the terrace is a flight of rock-cut steps leading up to the top storey and at the southern end a group of decayed figures carved in the round representing a life size male human figure seated in the usual conventional cross-legged manner of Jain and Buddhist images and two big lions, one on each side of the central figure. The latter is now headless and too decayed for identification. The group appears immediately above the cornice of the little Siva shrine below belonging to the lower storey and therefore seems to relate to the latter rather than to the terrace above. It does not appear to be a representation of any particular deity and has only one pair of arms. In all probability, it was intended as a portrait image of the saintly king who executed this great work. We know that Mahendra installed a portrait image of himself within the Trichinopoly temple and the socket-hole for that image still exists, so there is no reason why the king or ruler who ordered the Undavalli temple to be made may not have done likewise. The figures of lions on the bases of some of the pillars in the same storey, also those found on early Pallava coins, seem to show that the big lions flanking this image denote that it represents a royal personage and the founder of the temple and is not a representation of a deity.