Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c27.23

c27.23

Although all these Southern Indian temples have evolved on much the same lines and disclose plans and general arrangements in which there is a certain similarity, several possess some special feature to distinguish them from all others of their class A notable example is the temple of Rameswaram of which the chief glory consists in its pillared corridors, which not only completely surround it, but form avenues leading up to it, so that combined they are calculated to aggregate three thousand feet in length The breadth of these fine columned passages varies from seventeen feet to twenty-one feet, and their height from floor to roof is about twenty five feet. Richly decorated pillars of good proportions and closely set continue along the entire length, each pillar being twelve feet in height and rising from a moulded stylobate five feet high. In almost every direction therefore there is an unending perspective of columned halls, those on the north and south sides being particularly effective as they are over seven hundred feet in length. The general scheme of the Rameswaram temple consists of a double shrine enclosed within three concentric perimeter walls, the outer of these measuring eight hundred and eighty feet by six hundred and seventy-two. Like the temple at Madura most of it in its present state was planned and constructed within one period although on a very ancient and sacred site, as remains of the original shrine are still in evidence. These comprise a few small structures near the western exterior which differ in their orientation from the remainder of the temple, and from their style may be as early as the twelfth century. Externally, as the temple is enclosed all round within a plain wall twenty feet high, there is no architectural effect save that of a very fine gopuram on the eastern side. This gopuram which forms the principal entrance to the second enclosure, is recorded to have been begun about 1640, and then left unfinished, to be completed within modern times. It is in eleven stories and about one hundred and fifty feet high, with good proportions and the contours of its angles straight and strong, the scheme of decoration being of the architectural order without much figure work Two other much larger gopurams have been begun on the north and south sides of the outermost wall, but only their lower stories have been finished. (Plate LXXIX).