Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c24.28

c24.28

Taken as a whole this assembly hall, comprising the entire frontal portion of the temple, both as regards its exterior as well as its interior is a large but uninspiring production, almost barn-like in its plainness The pillars of the interior are an attempt to give it character, but without much success, while a still greater effort to provide it with some external appearance was made in connexion with the main entrance on the east There are indications that a grand portal was here contemplated, certain of its elements such as the giant figures in high relief on either side, the pylons in front of these, the wide stairways, the immense basement mouldings, and the colossal image of the bull (nandi) leading up to this entrance are almost Assyrian in their dimensions. But for some reason the builders failed either to co-ordinate these fine components, or left the entire scheme incomplete, in either case this eastern front seems to represent an outstanding architectural ideal unfulfilled.