Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c21.4

c21.4

All these stages may be studied in the various temples at Aihole, while the beginning of that significant feature, the sikhara, is also observable It is not improbable that an early phase of the tower consisted of a series of mouldings or courses of masonry of a very simple order, diminishing as they ascend, thus taking the shape of a stepped pyramid, truncated above and crowned by a ribbed stone, as shown in several smaller shrines on the site (Plate LVI, Fig. 4). But one of the earliest, judging by its primitive appearance, to assume the sikhara form is that over the Durga temple. This, when complete, instead of being curved in outline, as in the later examples, is almost straight-sided, like an elongated pyramid, but inclined inward at the apex to support the fluted finial (*amala sila*), a large ribbed stone now thrown down and lying at its foot. There is something singularly interesting in the formation of this temple, particularly in the superposition of its distinctly Hindu tower on an apsidal structure obviously derived from a Buddhist chaitya hall. (Plate XXXVIII) Another at Aihole, the Huchimalligudi, has also been provided with a sikhara, although in this instance it is not raised on an apse, but over a square end. On the front or eastern face of the sikhara, there is a portion projected and shaped like a chaitya-arch, with a circular panel sunk in the centre. This panel contains a carved figure-composition of the god Siva dancing the *tandava*, a representation of a vigorous performance attributed to the deity when in revelry. Afterwards, the projected portion was gradually extended into a kind of gable, and became the roof of the vestibule in the temple interior. It will be noted that most of the sikharas at Aihole are in the northern or Indo-Aryan style, and may have been improvisations by the local craftsmen, but the primitive simplicity of their design is manifest. (Plate XLVI, Fig. 1).