Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c16.15

c16.15

The exterior is much ruined but it seems not improbable that the upper part of the tower was finished by means of a short "keel" roof, not unlike that of the Vaital Deul temple at Bhubaneshwar (Plate XVI, Fig. 3), and also of the Telika Mandir at Gwalior (Plate CXVI, Fig. 2) both built several centuries later, but demonstrably survivals of an earlier type. Its proportions appear to have been quite good, but it is in the architectural treatment of its surfaces that the builder has shown his skill in overcoming the disadvantages of flatness and want of shadow, inherent in structures composed of small elements such as brick. Variety has been obtained by introducing at the right intervals prominent string-courses, broken by recessed planes with sunk panels all arranged in excellent relation, not only to one another, but to the scheme as a whole. Effective use has been made of a motif derived from Buddhist sources, consisting of a decorative adaptation of the chaitya-arch converted into a niche for the reception of figure-subjects of terracotta, and applied freely all over the building. The bricks of which this shrine is built are of a large size measuring 17½×10×3", and the general construction shows marked technical ability, so much so that there is little doubt that it represents a phase of the building art which was well-understood and had a long tradition behind it. As almost the sole surviving record of this early phase, which must have been of no little importance during the first centuries of the Christian era, the Bhitagaon temple has a special interest. There are other shrines in its vicinity, much later in date as they are presumed to have been erected in the tenth century, which although varying in style, are designed and constructed on the same simple principles, showing that this method of building persisted in these parts for a long period.