Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c29.13

c29.13

In this ceiling treatment of the Khajuraho temples the shallow dome over the central compartment or *mandapa* was that on which the finest work was produced, although even the porches and outlying chambers were often equally elaborated. The design selected was usually a geometrical one, an arrangement of intersecting circles, which on plan form a combination of cusps or quatrefoils, but in section are a series of semi-spherical recesses, or shell-shapes, with a long richly-carved pendant dropping from the centre of each. In a typical example of one of these ceilings the entire surface is a swirling pattern of circles and semi-circles recalling stones thrown into a pool. It is a method not unlike stalactite vaulting, but composed almost entirely of spherical instead of octagonal elements, and there are also observable some of the principles employed in Gothic fanvaulting, although worked out to a much smaller scale. Each stone of these ceilings was carved separately, according to a stencilled pattern, and the whole composition fitted together temporarily on the ground Then, when all the parts were complete, and the jointing perfected, its components were hoisted up on to the roof and dropped into position one by one so that they interlocked, each course supporting that above it. The complex nature of the designs, the patience and skill required to carve, fit, and finally assemble each piece in its correct position, while in the end the entire work is invisible on account of the darkness of the compartment it covers, is an illustration of one of those insoluble problems occasionally found in the building art of the country.