Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c21.26

c21.26

It is mainly in the application of this architectural embellishment to the structural background of the temple that progress is most marked. Specially is it noticeable in the treatment of the exterior walls, and more particularly in the area known as the "filling," already referred to in the previous example. This expanse of wall surface between the basement and the cornice, in view of its prominent position in the structure as a whole, invites very considered treatment. Here it has been divided up by means of pilasters, sometimes singly and at other places in pairs, into well-proportioned spaces, the intervening panels being enriched by the introduction of niches alternating with perforated windows. A comparison of the scheme of the wall surface with that of the Papanath example is an index of the gain in the art of architectural mural decoration, which has taken place since that temple was built But there is something more than a mere improvement in the nature of this filling, there is a difference in the type of unit forming the basis of the composition. This unit, or fundamental element, is the ornamental shrine or niche. Where, in the Papanath temple, these were of the Indo-Aryan kind, in the Virupaksha they are of Dravidian character. The style of each temple is, therefore, not only defined by the shape of the tower, or even by the general formation of the structure, but also by the "order" expressed in the shrine-like niches on its walls. In a word the temple is a development and elaboration of the aboriginal shrine. The northern order of niche, as in the Papanath example, is distinguished by the character of its canopy, which is made up of multiples of a small decorative chaitya arch, grouped so as to form a triangular pattern. (Plate LIV, Fig. 8). On the other hand the Dravidian niche has as its underlying principle a canopy adapted from a single chaitya-arch motif, as illustrated on the Virupaksha temple.