The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c25.s1.5

c25.s1.5

The four triangular corner slabs of the central ceiling of this hall are marvels of fretted stonework (CIV). Upon the square formed by the four large beams over the four central pillars, is set a smaller square diagonally to the first, leaving great triangular spaces between the two. These are closed in with slabs, whose under surfaces have been worked into a rich and heavy mass of hanging arabesque foliage and makaras which flow from the jaws of a kīrtimukha masque. The convolutions of the design, with their circling excrescences and bewildering whorls, form, altogether, as rich a bit of work as will be found anywhere. And what enhances its effect more than anything else is its remarkably deep undercutting, so that the whole fretted surface hangs in masses from the ceiling, a forest of little struts, behind it, connecting it with the body of the slab.