Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c36.31

c36.31

The Hoysalesvara is a double temple in every sense of the word, as it is two complete temples of exactly the same dimensions built side by side, connected only by their adjacent transepts. The length of each is 112 feet and about 100 feet in width, so that they are not large structures, each approximating in area the chancel of a moderately sized English Cathedral, but, taken together, the two buildings, with their *nandi* pavilions in front cover a fairly large space, as they occupy the greater part of a square measuring over 200 feet side. The entire conception stands on a large platform having angles corresponding to those of the buildings it supports. Each temple is cruciform in plan so that the whole composition on the ground assumes the shape of a double cross joined at its inner arms The arrangements of each temple resolve themselves into the two usual compartments consisting of a pillared hall and its attached sanctuary; in addition there is in front, in both instances, a *nandi mandapa*, or open pillared pavilion, the one facing the eastern doorway of the southern temple being a building of considerable size, a temple in itself, but the northern pavilion is much smaller, the inequality of these two supplementary structures being the only unsymmetrical portions of its configuration