Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c22.9

c22.9

The third type of excavated temple in which the shrine is not only isolated but contained within a group of halls arranged on a cruciform plan, is illustrated at Ellora by only one example, that of the Dumar Lena (No. 29). Two other rock-cut temples of this class are known, although on entirely different sites, one at Elephanta and the other the Jogeswara in Salsette, but the Dumar Lena is clearly the original by which these were inspired. Where this type differs fundamentally from all others and departs from the rock-cut tradition is in the number and position of its entrances, both the Ellora example and that at Elephanta having three separate portals, one at the front, and one in each wing. Such an innovation was dependent to some extent on the configuration of the hill in which the temple was excavated, and the manner in which some of the difficulties thus presented were met is seen in the varying forms of the plan. All the temples of this class are not only large in area but also in the scale of their parts, and although no doubt they were primarily devised to admit of the passage of important ceremonial processions, the result is an interior architectural scheme of a most impressive order. Much of the effect is due to the system of lighting, which, admitted through the portals from three opposite directions infiltrates into every part of the interior, casting an unending intricacy of shadows thus increasing the contrast and illusion. That it was a type of excavated hall copied from some form of building which has disappeared is not unlikely as the interior arrangements consisting of one pillared aisle passing through a row of columns into another having a different axial direction, seem to suggest a structural derivation.