Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c39.38

c39.38

The southern group comprises a central temple around which cluster several shrines, all poised on a terrace of partly a natural and partly a structural formation. Each edifice follows the conventional temple plan, the general proportions being good and the masonry well finished, but the surfaces are simpler and less ornate than those in the valley itself, probably owing to their more remote position The other range of temples towards the north of the site is contained within a walled enclosure with a fine revetment wall on the mountain side specially provided to protect the entire group from being overwhelmed by rock-falls or similar contingencies. Among the confused and shattered structures which now encumber the enclosure, the main temple is least ruined and consists of a building in the characteristic style but with several supplementary shrines attached to its front and sides. Such additional compartments were evidently required for a particular form of ritual, and that water was an essential accessory is shown by the presence in a prominent position of an immense cistern, eighteen feet long with its other dimensions in proportion, hammered out of one huge boulder, a work of astonishingly patient skill and stupendous labour.