Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c25.15

c25.15

Later and more typical examples of the gopuram as it matured under the Pandyas are as follows :—another entrance subsequently added to the temple of Jambukesvara and known as the Sundara Pandya gopuram, built about 1250 ; a gateway on the eastern side of the temple of Chidambaram, of the same date ; one on the eastern side of the inner enclosure of the temple at Tiruvannamalai (Tirumalai) cir. 1300 (Plate LXXIV) ; and a gopuram of the great temple at Kumbakonam, cir. 1350. Of this series the eastern gateway at Chidambaram is perhaps the most characteristic of the period, and as it bears an inscription of the Pandya ruler Sundara who reigned in the middle of the thirteenth century its date is authenticated. In plan this gopuram occupies a rectangle 90 feet by 60 feet, while the two stories comprising its vertical substructure are together 35 feet high, the total height of its seven stories including the roof being 135 feet There is still much of the old traditional beauty of the Chola style in the design of its structure, the lower stories in stone masonry being but little different from those of the Tanjore vimana of 150 years before, except that there are elaborations in the details, which distinguish the existing mode. Above, the surface treatment is of the architectural kind, consisting of rows of pillared niches and pavilions, each with a foliated canopy, thus presenting a pattern of arcading alternating with a zone of ornamentation, an effective appearance without being too lavish. All these gopurams of the Pandya period are of much the same character as the foregoing, and although a type of structure which relies for much of its effect on the rich nature of its surface decoration, the restraint exercised in the earlier examples is commendable.