Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c12.s3.t7.26

c12.s3.t7.26

TWO APSIDAL TEMPLES:—There are at Sanchi two apsidal temples numbered 18 and 40 which are of Śuṅga age and in architecture resembled the rock-cut Chaitya halls at Karle. The first is the apsidal shrine directly opposite to the south gateway of Stūpa I. Its apse is enclosed not by columns, as in the cave temples but by a solid wall. The inner and outer walls around the apse were constructed of dry stone masonry. The older pillars and pilasters of the nave are monoliths, square in section and 17' high, slightly tapering towards the top. Within the apse of the temple there once stood a Stūpa which contained a steatite vase. [Fig. 86]. The other apsidal temple numbered 40 stood in the southern area. Its plan consisted of an apse, nave, *pradakṣiṇāpatha* with an entrance in each of its two longar sides a feature which recalls to mind the Sudāmā and other Maurya cave-shrines in the Barābar hills but differing from the cave temples of Western India which have one or more entrances directly opposite the apse. There were several restorations but the two original walls were in the form of an apse at the southern end, i.e. having a *Vṛttāyata* or *Besara* form.