The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c7.22

c7.22

Judged from a western point of view, the lighting of their interiors was very bad; it might almost be said it was left to chance. There was, perhaps, after all, a purpose in this omission. In the outer open hall a fair amount of light was admitted through the open sides all around, when these were not, as was so often the case, built up with mud walls. The closed *maṇḍapa* was frequently lighted from but one entrance doorway, which itself often opened into the subdued light of the outer hall. Sometimes there were two other side doorways screened with porches; but, even with all three, the interior of this inner hall with its black stone walls, pillars and ceilings, was very inadequately lighted, and was, consequently, so gloomy that any detail in the corners was quite lost. The shrine was still darker, being recessed back from this gloomy hall by the depth of the antechamber, and receiving as its only supply of light the feeble rays that struggled in through its own doorway. Consequently a small oil lamp was usually burning day and night to illumine, by its fitful glimmer, the object of worship, which thus gained in mystery what it lost in visibility. This palpable darkness, pierced only by the reflected light from the most prominent portions of the image, was calculated to impress the approaching worshipper with that wholesome awe which was becoming to the occasion; and, wrapt up in his religious fervour, he could believe he saw the sentient movement of the deity’s grim features as the light’s rays flickered over them. Enveloped in the dimly illuminated gloom of the shrine it is a god; brought out into the open it would be nought but a stone image.