Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c10.34

c10.34

In the upper compartment of Plate XI an attempt has been made by means of diagrams to explain the origin of a motif appearing in a variety of forms, and with marked persistence in all the earlier developments of Indian architecture. This shape, which owing to its fluted treatment is unmistakable, in most frequently found in the capital, but it also occupies a prominent place as a finial, as well as a decorative element repeated in the quoins of the *sikharas*, or spires, of the later temples. It is a melon-shaped feature ordinarily referred to as the *amalaka*, and popularly supposed to be derived from a common fruit of that name, otherwise known as the *emblic myrobalan*. There is more probability however, that it has reference to the *amalasila* or "pure stone", an object which appears early in Indian art, and is of very remote origin. This again brings it into association with the ring or "cogged" stone, those mystical perforated stones which are found among the remains of many primitive people, while its connection with the *norbu* or "precious jewel" in the Lamaism of Tibet is also clear. That it is a relic of some sacred and very ancient ritual is shown by the fact that it is usually represented enshrined in a specially shaped casket. The difficulty experienced by the sculptor in expressing the presence of the precious symbol in the casket was overcome in two ways, by placing it above the receptacle as in the illustration from Besnagar (Fig. 4), or depicting it within a box reduced to a mere framework as at Bedsa (Fig. 3 and 5). Later, the fluted treatment of this motif may be identified in many architectural features of the *chaitya*, *vihara*, and temple, and it is not unlikely that, blended with the fluted bell-shape, it eventually emerged as the *kalasa* or vase of the Gupta period, as at Udaigiri and Tigawa (Plate X). But there are few elements in early Indian architecture which have more remote, sacred, or mystical origins than the *amalaka*.