Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c23.10

c23.10

Towards the end of Mahendra's reign some efforts were made to break away from this singularly plain treatment of the mandapa, as may be seen in the rock-cut temple of Anantasayana at Undavalli, and in the series of shrines at Bhairavakonda. The former is a definite departure, as although in some senses a mandapa, for it consists of several of these pillared halls one above another, it is fairly clear that it was an attempt to reproduce in the rock technique a pyramidal composition, evidently based on the conventional form of a Buddhist vihara or monastery, as it is in four stories and rises to a height of some fifty feet. Yet except for its size and more complex design, its architectural rendering shows but little advance on the single storied examples already referred to. It is, however, in the series of eight excavated examples at Bhairavakonda, probably the latest of this reign, that a marked step forward is observable, for here is the beginning of the distinctive Pallava type It is true that here also the mandapas are of the same simple plan as are all the foregoing, but it is in the design of the facade, and specially in the elaboration of the pillars, that a new spirit seems to have entered architectural effort of the time It is the stage at which the characteristic pillar, or "order," of the Pallava into the style makes its appearance.