Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c27.9

c27.9

But even if the late Dravidian temple as a whole fails to produce a unified architectural effect, there are certain of its elements, which, regarded either individually or collectively are of considerable artistic merit. Two of them are pre-eminent, consisting of exteriorly, the gopurams, and, interiorly, the pillars, either singly or in colonnades or groups. During the Madura period the gopuram reached its maturity, and some of these great pylons are not only thoroughly characteristic of the southern style, but are most imposing examples of the building art. As by far the most impressive features of the temple scheme, not only do they make a direct contribution to the whole, but they are of marked importance in shaping its parts A certain number are what may be termed of the first class, that is 150 feet high and over, and some of them, rising up to as many as sixteen stories, and, literally, "sky-scrapers", attain the height of nearly 200 feet In the centre of the long side is the doorway, a square-headed opening about 25 feet high, forming a kind of corridor through the structure, with rooms on either side for the accommodation of guardians and doorkeepers. Out of one of these rooms leads a staircase by means of which the summit may be reached, with a wide landing at each story. In its external treatment the height of the gopuram is emphasised by lines leading vertically, upward tendencies being obtained by the sides not being flat but having perpendicular sections projected. Then across this verticality are carried the lines of the diminishing storeys in horizontal tiers, so that the entire mass becomes a rich pattern of the vertical and the horizontal. In the later examples the surfaces were also embellished with groups of plastic imagery from which an idea of the inexhaustible resources of Hindu mythology may be gained, as some of them are computed to display as many as a thousand figures, the majority considerably over life-size (Plate LXXVII)