Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c23.23

c23.23

Even more significant than the foregoing are the remaining three examples of rathas known as Bhima, Sahadeva and Ganesh, which appear to be based on various types of chaitya hall, or Buddhist temple. They are all oblong in plan, and rise up into two or more stories, while each has a keel or barrel roof, with a chaitya gable end The Sahadeva type is apsidal, and structural replicas of this form were erected at a subsequent date, of which the later Pallava temple of Vadamallisvara is an example A still more informative instance of the chaitya hall type is Bhima's ratha, which is a copy of a building in two stories, the upper story displaying a perfect representation of a keel roof with a gable at each end A similar effect was produced later in two structures of the Indo-Aryan order, the tenth century temple of Vaital Deul at Bhubaneswar, Orissa (Chapter XXI), and in the eleventh century Teli-ka-Mandir in Gwalior Fort (Chapter XXVI). The remaining ratha of the group, that of Ganesh, is in some respects a combination of the two previous examples, but it is different inasmuch as the entrance is through a pillared portico on its long side. Not only were these three rathas the prototypes of temples, but they were also the pattern out of which was evolved an important later development, for it was on their oblong plan, diminishing stories, and specifically, the keel roof with its pinnacles and gable ends, that the *gopuram* was based. It is possible to see here the beginnings of those great towering pylons forming the entrance gateways to the temples of the south, and which give their chief character to the Dravidian style. (Plate LVII, Fig. 2.)