The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c11.s2.12

c11.s2.12

The beams, between the ceiling panels of the larger hall, are most exquisitely carved and decorated in hanging arabesque, it being some of the richest work of its kind in western India (Plate LIII). The brackets under the ends of them are fashioned as *makara's* heads, from whose jaws issue rampant lions connecting them with the soffits of the beams. On the faces of each pilaster are pairs of figures—men and women—in almost full relief. A continuous frieze of little figures, bearing up loops of a running festoon, as is found in early Buddhist ornament, runs along the tops of the walls of the hall; and, opposite this, over the pillars, is a frieze of pairs of flying figures.