Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c23.37

c23.37

While it is quite clear that the central buildings comprising the Shore temple are a development of the monolithic rathas of the previous phase, specifically from that of the Dharmaraja ratha, the difference in treatment between the two types of the temple is considerable. The change in technique from the rock-cut to the structural partly accounts for this, and the interval separating the execution of the two productions, although not great, would also have some effect. And there was, of course, a new ruler on the throne, whose personal predilections may have had some influence. But even these factors, significant though they may be, can hardly account for the difference not only in temper and in trend, but in the forms as well, which appear in this first structural example of the Pallava period In principle the monolithic Dharmaraja ratha and the Shore temple are the same, there is the square lower story, and the pyramidal tower in diminishing tiers above in both conceptions, but there is another and original ideal motivating the design of the Shore temple, particularly noticeable in the shape of the tower. This is shown in the obvious desire of the builders to rid themselves of the vihara incubus, and to devise a building more architecturally rational, in a word to shake off the shackles of its prototype and give effect to their own rising genius.