Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c28.45

c28.45

As already observed the sculpture with which this architecture is adorned is of an equally high order. Few buildings can boast of such an unrestrained abundance of plastic decoration as this vast structure, every portion of the exterior being moulded and chiselled either in the form of abstract geometrical ornament, conventional foliage, mythical animals. fabulous beings half-human with half-serpent coils, figures satanic and figures divine, of every conceivable motif and subject known to the Indian mind, and in a technique which ranges from patterns cut with the minute precision of a cameo to powerfully modelled groups of colossal size. As far as the mural decoration is concerned the system on which it was applied has as its basis a framework of vertical and horizontal courses, recalling in some respects the warp and weft of a woven textile, the relief ornament presenting an intricate tapestry of form, amazingly beautiful. Yet much of this relief work depicts subjects which, according to the ordinarily accepted standard in such matters are grossly obscene. These indicate the emergence of a particular phase of Hinduism, known as Tantrism, the *maithuna* ritual of which is represented in the carving on this temple Such a conception is not however limited to the temple of Konarak; it finds expression at intervals not only in the art of the country but also in its literature, both prose and poetry¹ Nor is it confined to one region, for in its plastic form it appears on the temples of Khajuraho in Central India, at Madura, and in certain of the eleventh century temples of the Dekkan, as for instance at Balsane in Khandesh, and in the Asvera at Sinnar in the Nasik District.