Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c23.11

c23.11

Up to this point the pillar in the Mahendra group of mandapas has been a rudimentary type of beam and bracket, serviceable in principle, but the idea of minds evidently in possession of very limited experience At Bairavakonda, this crude production is still visible, but superimposed on its simple shape is an entirely different and much more sophisticated design of capital and shaft, a formation which has already been referred to as representing the Dravidian mode. And moreover, with the fusion of the two forms of pillar, there was also added another element, that of a lion, a figure of one of these animals being combined with the lower portion of the shaft, and another introduced into the capital. This heraldic beast, which from now onward occupies a prominent position in the architectural productions of the Pallavas, was appropriated by the ruling dynasty, and made to serve as a symbol of their Simhavishnu, or "lion" (*simha*) ancestry. The Bhairavakonda pillars therefore depict the Pallava order in the making, the blending of the stark realism of the beginner, with the more reasoned results of endeavour. How this order of pillar design, as yet unformed, was refined and adapted until it developed into a type of column of exceptional character and elegance, is shown in the productions of the succeeding reign