Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c31.24

c31.24

In spite of its ruined condition little imagination is required to picture this building as it was when consecrated in the eleventh century. What gave it such a finished appearance was not so much the design of the temple building itself, fine though this structure was, but the appearance of the whole scheme with its architectural setting, including its accessories, which show that as in all good building, the needs and the conveniences of the undertaking were counted as essential as its aesthetic treatment Accordingly those entrusted with its production confronted the temple with a large sacred pool or *kunda*, for ablutions, comprising a sheet of water contained within a rectangular arrangement of platforms and terraces interspaced with shrines of various sizes and shapes, all so admirably laid out that this part of the composition itself is a notable work of art. On the western side of this ornamental tank, a wide flight of steps ascends through an exquisitely carved and fluted archway, or torana, to the main entrance of the temple This building was elevated on a broad terrace (*kharasila*) constructed of solid brick faced with stone which formed an imposing courtyard around it. The temple itself is resolved into two separate structures connected by a narrow passage, consisting on the one hand of an open pillared hall or *sabha-mandapa*, and on the other of an enclosed rectangular building containing two compartments, the assembly hall or *gudha-mandapa*, and the shrine or *garbha-griha*, the axial length of the whole being 145 feet.