Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c17.27

c17.27

But the most ornate of all these features is the doorway, which although designed in the mode of the period, is so charged with decorative additions that the principle of the projecting lintel, so characteristic of the style, is almost obscured. The underlying motif takes the form of a pavilion archway with pilasters on each side supporting an architrave of dormered gables, the whole being skilfully adapted to frame the doorway. This ornamental archway bears some relation to a style of semi-secular architecture found in the backgrounds of the mural paintings which about the same time were being produced at Ajanta. The structures, which probably suggested the introduction of these architectural elements into the sculpture and painting of the Gupta period, were apparently pavilions of a portable kind having wooden pillars, turned on a lathe, and lacquered and coloured, to be set up like tents for the accommodation of the imperial court as it moved about the country. The regal nature of this equipage, with its graceful lines caught the eye of the artist who was prompt in applying it in his more lasting decorative schemes In the Deogarh temple the ornate character of the doorway is repeated in the sculptured treatment of the three remaining sides of the building. But on these portions the central feature of each takes the form of a sunk panel or false window, five feet high and four feet wide, framed in an architectural setting of pilasters and architrave, and containing a profoundly moving religious figure composition carved in high relief (Plate XLI, Figs, 2 and 3). Here it is possible to see one of the purposes of the projecting porticos, as they protect these icons, and aid in consecrating them as a kind of altar-piece. When com-plete, this building was unquestionably one of rare merit in the correct ordering of its parts, all alike serving the purpose of practical utility, yet imbued with supreme artistic feeling. Few monuments can show such a high level of workmanship, combined with a ripeness and rich refinement in its sculptural effect as the Gupta temple at Deogarh.