Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c25.4

c25.4

The gopuram, as this type of temple portal is called, derived its name in the first instance from the "cow-gate" of the Vedic village, afterwards becoming the city gate, and subsequently the monumental entrance to the temple. Elementary prototypes of this characteristic architectural feature have been already referred to, as for instance in the shrine at the entrance to the Kailasanatha temple at Conjeeveram (Chapter XVI), and also in the early Chalukyan temple of Virupaksha at Pattadakal (Chapter XIV), both examples illustrating the gopuram in a very rudimentary stage. As with a number of conspicuous elements in Indian architecture of various kinds there is no definite process of evolution, the object, although not exactly self-originated, suddenly emerges in a relatively mature state. So it was with the gopuram, the earliest developed examples of which appear as the gateways to the southern type of temple during the period of the Pandyas in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.