Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c31.12

c31.12

In the temple design the *pitha* or basement, the upper surface of which forms the floor of the building, is composed of a series of mouldings and string-courses, the more important carved with repeating motifs arranged in an order fixed by convention, the lowest being the *garaspatti* or horned heads (*rakshas*), over this is the *gajapitha*, or elephant fronts, then comes the *asvathara* or horses, and finally at the top is the *narathara*, or human beings Supported by this basement is the second or middle division, the *mandovara*, the most significant portion of the entire elevational scheme, as it comprises a vertical wall-face reserved exclusively for figure sculpture, so that except for its medial position it corresponds to, and has all the attributes of a wide frieze. On this wall are enshrined in niches and tabernacles bas-relief images of the deities and saints associated with the dedicature of the temple, a sculptured pantheon carried usually right round the building. Then, completing the composition of the temple as a whole, there is the third of these formations, comprising the superstructure, in which the roof of the assembly hall or mandapa is built up in the manner of a low pyramid, composed of horizontal courses, diminishing as they rise, and terminating in the usual vase-shaped finial. It is however in the treatment of the *sikhara* which surmounts the shrine that these western temples are most distinctive, as this spire is no longer one simple member, but a group of members, its lower portion being surrounded by a system of turrets or *uruśringas*, these features being symmetrically arranged, each a replica in miniature of the large central structure, and each in such high relief as to be semi-detached or almost "in the round". (Plate CIV, Fig. 1).