Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c25.17

c25.17

One architectural motif freely used in parts of this temple recalls a much earlier phase of the southern style. It is the reappearance, as a support to the walls, of the leogriff pilaster, that rampant animal form so characteristic of the Pallava period. Emerging first in the rock-cut mandapas of Mamallapuram, it disappeared for several centuries to be revived in its original shape on the Amman shrine of this temple of the Pandyas Such an instance of architectural atavism is not by any means rare in the building art of India, yet it is a little strange to meet again these almost forgotten leonine creatures, but they fall into their place in the later building and in perfect accord with their environment in spite of the long interval of disuse. A somewhat similar animal form going back almost to the same early phase is seen in another kind of pillar at the Darasuram temple on a building known as the Kalyan mandapa. This is a sedent gryphon attached to the shaft of the column, but its body is attenuated vertically, thus appearing by its pose to prefigure those very striking horse and dragon groups which rear themselves in such spirited attitudes to form the columns of the succeeding period.