Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c31.34

c31.34

As an instance of the wide distribution of this style in the eleventh century, there is an exceptionally rich but severely damaged group of temples at Kiradu in the district of Mallani in Marwar, each temple having many of the characteristics of the Solanki mode. Yet with these may be detected certain Gupta influences, particularly in the pattern of the small turrets of the sikhara, and in the more liberal use of the vase and foliage motif, due no doubt to the proximity of the Gupta territory and the still living records of that style. There are five temples at Kiradu, of which one dedicated to Vishnu is probably the earliest, but the largest and least injured is that of Someswara still retaining much of its tower, and the shell of a magnificent pillared hall, the square shafts of its columns ending in the vase and foliage element, above which is a circular section and a four branched bracket capital. In this temple the basement or *pitha* includes a complete series of the traditional mouldings of the style, consisting of the rows of horned heads, elephants, horses, and men, in that order. Several of the mandapas in the other examples are mere skeletons of their original shape, but from these anatomical remains, the construction and arrangements may be more readily studied. There appear no other temples in these parts so richly wrought, or showing more distinctly a compounding of exuberant art and intensity of devotion than this deserted group at Kiradu (Plates XCV, XCVIII and XCIX).