Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c24.21

c24.21

Another ornamental feature of some interest appears in the Chola buildings, and is illustrated in the Koranganatha example. As already indicated the devices of heraldic lions and other supernatural beasts were eliminated in the temples of this period, but a different animalized motif now emerges. It takes the form of a string-course, frequently repeated, containing a row of gryphons heads, the use of which as a decorative element in the temple scheme was continued throughout the subsequent periods of the Dravidian style. Some signs of this striking motif are discernible in the early Chalukyan temples but it is not observable in the Pallava examples. These gargoyle-like heads squirming under the weight of the superimposed masonry, as if their bodies were immured within the joints of the structure are, *rakshasas* or earth-spirits, so imprisoned that they may guard the temple, but at the same time they are helpless to cause it harm. Here we seem to see something that corresponded to the "bestiaries" of the West, those representations of fabulous creatures so popular in Europe about this date and which are believed to have had their origin in the East. Although usually in pictorial manuscripts, these "unicorns, yales, leopards, and fire-breathing panthers" were not infrequently carved on Gothic churches in much the same manner as those on the Chola temple. Taken as a whole the temple at Srinivasanalur, although decidedly unpretentious, appears as an unaffected illustration of a transition stage in the evolution of the Dravidian style. It denotes that the Cholas at this period were passing through a process of formation in their architectural culture, treasuring their traditions but at the same time exercising their discretion with regard to what was handed down to them, thus restricting their aspirations to accord with their undeveloped ideals