Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c27.28

c27.28

Of the remaining temples of this group most of these are repetitions, with certain variations, of the foregoing. That at Tinnevelly is a double temple dedicated to Siva and his consort Parvati and therefore divided into two almost equal proportions, the whole occupying a rectangle 580 feet by 756 feet. Each deity is accommodated in a sanctuary towards the centre of the area, each containing a cella and portico and entered by a gopuram on the east. There are four other gopurams as entrances to the outer enclosure, and another for communication between the two separate enclosures. Tanks and pillared pavilions occupy most of the outer circuit, while extending along the whole of the southern side is hypostyle hall of a thousand pillars, measuring 520 feet by 63 feet, the pillars being arranged in rows of ten with a hundred in each row. Another temple in the Tinnevelly district is that at Srivilliputtur, notable for a gopuram which is two hundred feet high. An example of the later type, being built mainly of brick and plaster, it is in thirteen stories exclusive of the superstructure forming its roof. This superstructure is an excessively tall composition resembling a hall with a chaitya roof, elaborately ornamented with a great *suraj mukh*, or "sun-face" above its gable-end, and a row of immense vase pinnacles along its ridge. It belongs to the class of gopuram with the contours of its angles slightly concave, a structural expedient giving a curved outline to its mass, which, while adding to the sweeping effect of height and grace, deducts from it virility and strength.