Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c36.29

c36.29

From this temple the best idea of an interior in the style may be gained, although, as in most examples, even here the pillars are so closely set, that no spatial view is possible, and every feature is so overlaid with carving, that the effect is one of congestion, there is no attempt at restraint, breadth, or repose. (Plate CXXIV, Fig 2). The main colonnades form two cross aisles intersecting in the middle of the hall, where they produce a central bay or nave. These cruciform aisles leave spaces in the angles of the hall in which smaller pillars are placed, and each group of four supports beams enclosing a sunk coffered ceiling It is on the main pillars and the recessed ceilings that the sculptor has specially directed his artistic ingenuity, and these are most imaginatively and copiously patterned. As the greatest interior dimensions of this *navaranga* are 92 feet by 78 feet, and the total number of pillars amounts to forty-six, all of which, save the four in the central bay, are each of different design, the variety of form and complex character of the whole is astonishing. It seems as if the system employed in the design and construction of these pillars was that of entrusting each example to one head artist and his assistants, who combined as a team to produce their finest work. Set to compete against one another in such a manner, each pillar became, therefore, an individual masterpiece, the fertility of invention and the minuteness of the execution in every instance being phenomenal. One column in the middle hall is so unique in character that it has been distinguished by the name of the Narasinha pillar, for to show his cleverness the sculptor has not only carved its capital, shaft, and base, into a repeating pattern of niches in each of which is enshrined an image, but has ingeniously contrived that the whole pillar could be rotated at will. Yet underneath all these interlaced mouldings and intricately finished forms it is possible to see, in spite of this plastic overlay, that the basis of the design is in conformity with the Chalukyan order, that there is throughout a certain conventional combination of elements which is unmistakable. That each detail of the building was the work of specialists in their craft, a not uncommon procedure in other forms of Indian art, is indicated by the fact that on a number of the images, particularly those on the brackets, there is inscribed the name of the sculptor, like a signature, thus showing that each individual artist had contributed to the scheme a selected specimen of his handiwork.