Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c29.16

c29.16

There are two other temples at Khajuraho planned on the same principle as the Kandariya, with double transepts, but they are both one-sixth less in size. These are the Siva temple of Visvanath (No. 7), and the Vishnu temple of Chaturbhuj (No. 10), the former measuring on the ground 87 feet by 46 feet, and the latter 85 feet by 44 feet. Both appear to have had small supplementary shrines at each corner of their platforms, so that they are examples of the *panchayatana*, or five-shrined type of temple. On the Vishvanath temple there is an inscription which records that it was built about 1000 A.D. Two other temples of a fair size are the Vishnu temple of Devi Jagadambi (No. 5) measuring 77 feet by 50 feet, and that of Chhatr-ko-patr (No. 6) dedicated to Surya, the Sun-God, measuring 87 feet by 58 feet, both of which have only one pair of transepts, and are on plan and in elevation very elegantly proportioned. The Devi Jagadambi is a good example of the simpler type of temple-design, as it has only four compartments, the ardha-mandapa or portico consisting of only one chamber, instead of two, and there is no processional passage round the cella.