Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c29.21

c29.21

There is one ruined shrine at Khajuraho, standing a little apart from the Jain group, but evidently belonging to that creed, which has attracted considerable attention on account of what may be described as the Attic beauty of its constituent parts. (Plate XCV). A building in this condition, like the trunk of a mutilated figure, sometimes acquires undue merit for the sole reason that it is a fragment, the remains of something entirely great, but there is little doubt that the Ghantai temple when complete was a gem of its kind, evidently the handiwork of a group of the most accomplished craftsmen of the time. It consists now of merely a cluster of some twelve pillars, each over 14 feet high, standing on a moulded plinth 45 feet by 25 feet, and supporting a flat roof, the whole originally having been enclosed by walls. What is left bears some slight resemblance to the portico and cella in the Jinanath temple on the same site, but the brackets on the pillar shafts, the flat roof, and its detached position seem to suggest that it may have served some specific purpose in the Jain ceremonial. In its dismantled condition one can only admire the elegance of its pillars and the richness of the carved doorway. Some of the pillars are most gracefully proportioned, tall slender shafts, octagonal below and circular above, clasped around at intervals with girdles of delicate carving, and surmounted by an appropriate bracket capital.