Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c28.40

c28.40

This spirited allegory moved the designers to translate it into temple form, to realize it as a great spectacle in stone, the building to be fashioned like a *ratha* or wheeled car being whirled along by the seven horses of the sun. The base of the structure therefore is an immense terrace with 12 giant wheels (Plate LXXXIX), each nearly ten feet high fixed on either side, to simulate the vehicle of the god, and in front is a wide flight of steps, its sides supported by seven richly caparisoned steeds, rearing and straining in their harness as they strive to drag its great bulk along. On the high platform thus formed the temple building was raised in two conjoined parts, consisting of a large hall or *jagamohan*, 100 feet side and 100 feet high, and a still larger *deul* or tower rising to the great height of some 225 feet from the ground. At the base of this deul three subsidiary shrines were attached, with outer staircases leading up to spacious recesses each containing a life-sized but minutely carved chlorite statue of the deity. To complete the scheme, facing the main flight of steps the *nat mandir* was erected, a detached structure, square in plan and with a pyramidal roof, the whole on a high plinth, while placed around were a number of artistic and structural accessories such as a free-standing pillar, a refectory, several supplementary shrines, and separate groups of statuary, all enclosed within a courtyard 865 feet by 540 feet, having entrance gateways in three of its sides. Finally, to add to the richness of its appearance, as well as to the mysterious nature of its ceremonial the builders have filled out the pattern of this great structural composition by means of sculptured forms and intricate designs applied without stint to its immense surfaces, some of outstanding beauty, but others of such a shamelessly erotic character that they have no parallel in any known building.