Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c25.13

c25.13

In referring to the Dravidian temple at this stage of its evolution Dubreuil,¹ has not inappropriately likened the procedure by which the temple precincts were expanded, to the phenomenon of the growth of a tree trunk, the cross section of which shows a number of concentric rings each an annual contribution to its thickness. On the same principle the earlier courts of the Pandya temple are those towards the centre, while each concentric wall with its gopurams records successively a later addition. The older gopurams therefore are usually the smaller ones nearer to the innermost shrine, and one of the first examples of its kind appears to have been that in the second enclosure wall of the temple of Jambukesvara near Trichinopoly, probably built in the twelfth century. There are several features in this gopuram which are clearly a "carry-over" from the preceding style of the Cholas, so that it is really an illustration of the transition between the two modes. These earlier features are details in the order as seen in the design of the pilasters, for while the *idaie* or flower-shape of the capital remains plain and unscolloped as in the Chola type, the *bodigai*, or corbel of the bracket is elaborated after the Pandyan pattern. Although relatively small matters such details are a clue to the style and date of this presumably first example of a fully developed gopuram.