Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c23.8

c23.8

Beginning with the rock-architecture produced during the reign of Mahendravarman (A D. 610-640), constituting the earlier of the two groups of the first phase, this represents the mode that found favour with the Pallavas in the first half of the seventh century. The examples of the Mahendra group consist of one type only, namely pillared halls or mandapas. In this connection, it is perhaps only natural to infer that because the surviving relics of an ancient civilization are those formed out of the lasting rock, people were acquainted solely with that method. It will be shown however that a true picture of the time would represent these rock-cut halls supplemented by a very considerable miscellany of other buildings structurally formed Although the latter have perished, owing to their impermanent character, the style and certain distinguishing features of their architecture are preserved by copies cut in the rock. But it is obvious from the examples of the early group, which are fourteen in number, and enumerated below,¹ that the architecture, whether structural or otherwise, of the Pallavas at this particular stage was of a definitely primitive type. Each rock-cut mandapa consists of a pillared hall serving as a kind of portico to one or more cellas deeply recessed in the interior wall The exterior presents a facade formed of a row of pillars, each pillar averaging seven feet in height with a diameter of two feet, the shafts being square in section except for the middle third which is chamfered into an octagon. An immense and heavy bracket provides the capital, the composition as a whole suggesting as its origin a very elemental structure in which a ponderous wooden beam and bracket were the main features. So plain and simple is the Mahendra type that in the earliest examples, as at Mandagapattu and Trichinopoly, there is not even a cornice above the pillars, but later a roll-moulding was added as at Pallavaram. Afterwards, at Mogalrajapuram, this roll-cornice was ornamented at intervals with a motif known as a *kudu* (acroteria), which is readily identified as the Buddhist chaitya-arch much reduced and converted into an object of decoration