Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c23.40

c23.40

Not long after the erection of the Shore temple at Mamallapuram, another Siva temple the Kailasanatha was begun at Conjeeveram, the capital seat of the Pallavas, situated forty-five miles south-west of Madras. Conjeeveram, in the early centuries of the Christian era, was a place of considerable importance, probably the leading city of the Carnatic if not of Southern India. As the home of Dharmapala, the great commentator, a contemporary of the famous Buddhaghosa of the fifth century, it appears to have been a centre of intellectual life, while its fine series of temples are proof of its religious activity extending over a long period. For here may be studied the Dravidian style of temple architecture from its genesis under the Pallavas beginning in the 6th century to its culmination at Vijayanagar as late as the 15th and 16th centuries, a period of a thousand years of development. The temple of Ekambaranatha illustrates in one or other of its compartments every feature of this evolution, while a study of the Kailasanatha should form the basis of any investigation of the Dravidian building art. Dealing first therefore with the latter example, the main shrine of this structure was built during the reign of Rajasimha, so that its approximate date is A.D. 700, although the actual completion of the temple as a whole was undertaken by his son Mahendravarman III, but, with the exception of a few additions to the east end of the enclosure, it is all as originally conceived. The scheme resolves itself into three separate parts, consisting of a sanctuary with its pyramidal tower, a pillared hall or mandapa, the whole contained within a rectangular courtyard enclosed by a high and substantial wall composed of cells. At a much later date, probably in the fourteenth century, the two isolated buildings, the sanctuary and the mandapa, were joined together by a spacious intermediate hall or antarala, to accord with the ceremonial of the time This mediaeval addition has robbed the main structure of some of its architectural appearance, and it is better to visualize it without such an intervening compartment as shown in Plate LXIII, Fig. 1. It will be seen from the drawing that the main building is the tall sanctuary at the eastern end of the enclosure, and that in principle it conforms to the monolithic prototype of the Dharmaraja ratha. But there are certain elaborations, particularly in the supplementary shrines attached to and projecting from its three free sides, which aid considerably its effective presentation.