Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c24.29

c24.29

But whatever criticisms may be applied to this portion of the temple, without doubt the tall pyramidal vimana which towers over the western end is a superb achievement. On plan it is a square of 100 feet side, and as in the Tanjore example, is resolved into the three typical features of the Chola Dravidian sikhara, consisting of the upright ground story, the tapering body, and a domical finial. Like its predecessor also its vertical base is in two stages each defined by a heavy cornice casting horizontally a broad cordon of shadow, while the pyramidal body is in tiers, although here there are only eight of these diminishing zones, thus accounting for its lesser height Where the contours of the tower differ from the previous example is that in place of the strong straight lines and planes of the Tanjore vimana, curves have been introduced, the outline formed by the quoins or external angles of the pyramidal form being made slightly concave, while the surfaces between have been embowed so as to become slightly convex. Such curves give the mass an increased richness, but detract from its power. There is a voluptuousness in the later structure, the beauty of ripe femininity, in contrast to the masculine strength of the earlier type. But in comparing these two architectural productions they present much more than a difference in kind. Stately and formal as an epic may epitomise the Tanjore vimana, while the later example has all the sensuous passion of an eastern lyric, but it seems to go even deeper than that Each is the final and absolute vision of its creator made manifest through the medium of structural form, the one symbolizing conscious might the other sub-conscious grace, but both dictated by that "divinity which has seized the soul".