Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c36.28

c36.28

For a larger and earlier example, as well as one of more historical importance, we must turn to a group of temples at Belur in the Hassan District of Mysore, the construction of which dates from about 1117 A.D. (Plate CXXIV, Fig. 1). These temples are all withın one enclosure, and few sights could be more richly picturesque than this assemblage of early twelfth century buildings distributed rather unsymmetrically over its flagged pavements, with the temple of Kesava, evidently the main intention of the scheme, placed towards the centre. Unfortunately this, the principal building of the group, has lost its superstructure, so that it is architecturally unimpressive, but a close inspection reveals a conception of unusual artistic merit. The arrangements of its various compartments produce the customary cruciform plan, the temple with its platform, measuring 178 feet long by 156 feet wide, and its formation consists of a pillared hall having deeply recessed angles, a stellate *vīmana*, with a small square vestibule connecting the two. There are three entrances, one on each of the free sides of the hypostyle hall, each approached by a flight of steps flanked by a pagoda-like shrine, the last a useful note of architectural emphasis. A large and very elegant exterior shrine is also attached to each of the three projecting sides of the vīmana, an appropriate addition to this part of the structure. Although the temple at Belur was built a century and a half before the example previously described, as it was one of the first of its kind, while that at Somnathpur was one of the last, it is significant of the conservatism of the Indian artisan that the differences in the treatment of the two temples are slight. There is a little more freedom in the arrangement of the ornamental courses forming the basement, and a less disciplined disposal of the plastic forms on the exterior surfaces, indicating, to a slight degree, that at Belur the style had not completely crystallized. Yet there is one elaboration in this temple not found elsewhere and that is the sculptured figure-subjects on the perforated screens between the exterior pillars of the hypostyle hall. In number there are twenty of these screens, ten of which are treated geometrically, as is common in most of these temples, but the rest are carved to illustrate stories from the Puranas, presenting friezes crowded with beings engaged in the most animated pursuits.