Pallava Architecture, Part I (MASI 17) c2.42

c2.42

The cornice of the facade and that over the shrine doorway when decorated, usually takes the form of a heavy projecting convex moulding decorated with the Buddhist gable-window ornament. This ornament simulates a miniature barrel-vaulted roof decorated with little horse-shoe-shaped gable-windows. Human heads are portrayed peering through the windows and the gables have large flat-headed finials shaped like garden spades. [Plate I (a).]