Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c23.17

c23.17

and combining all their attributions, implying the accomplishment of a craftsman of more than ordinary powers. The lion as a pillar base is not an uncommon motif in the architecture of several civilizations. It is found in late Roman work, and also in Lombardic Romanesque buildings of Europe dating from the eleventh century, but in these occidental examples the shaft is usually supported on the animal's back. In the Pallava type the pillar is made to rest on the sedent animal's head, and, in the case of the lion in the Mahishasura interior, it is not the horned grotesque of the mandapas, but a more natural leonine figure yet sufficiently conventionalised to suit its architectonic purpose. The remaining members forming this particular class of pillar are equally well designed, the fluted and banded shaft (*stambham*), the refined necking (*tadi*), the elegant curves of the "melon" capital (*kumbha*), and its lotus form (*idaie*) above, with its wide abacus (*palagai*), are all so united as to produce an "order" of marked propriety and stability. (Plate LXII, Fig. 1).