Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c11.22

c11.22

The Heliodorus pillar is a monolithic free-standing column with a bell-capital carrying a figured superstructure, thus reproducing in its general appearance and intentions the Asokan pillars of nearly a century earlier. But in size it is considerably less than the Mauryan example, standing when its finial was complete, not quite thirty feet high and its proportions generally are more slender. The shape and fluting of the campaniform capital are of Persepolitan extraction, but at the same time bear a marked resemblance to the capitals of the Barhut torana, with which it was contemporary. In the ornamentation of the shaft, the lower part of which is octagonal and the upper sixteen sided, with a band above of thirty-two facets, there may be seen the beginnings of a method of enriching this part of the pillar which was developed with notable effect in the columns of the later styles. Other carvings on this monolith consist of festoon designs, a border with geese in pairs (a common Buddhist pattern), and such Hellenic motifs as the bead-moulding and the honeysuckle Where these Besnagar pillars manifest a definite departure is in the treatment of the abacus, which now appears as a large square coffer between the capital and its superstructure. Something of the kind may be observed in the massive block which overhangs the capital of the Asokan pillar at Kothua (Bakhra) acting as a base to the figure of the lion above, from which the idea may have been obtained, and it is worthy of note that when this enlarged type of abacus became still more pronounced, as in the early temples of the succeeding style of the Guptas, the lion motif accompanied it. (Plate XXXIV). The remaining pillars at Besnagar, of which only fragments now survive were provided with palm-leaf capitals of singularly graceful design. (Plate X).