The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c8.s6.7

c8.s6.7

Running the whole length of the entablature, on either side, are two richly sculptured foliage bands. The lower, with its undulating stem and leaves, has been a very favourite form of ornamental band all down through the centuries of temple building. The upper one, in the form in which we see it here, was only used in very early work and may be seen largely used on the great tope at Sāñchi. There is a very natural look about the unconventional soft vegetable forms of the stalks, leaves and flowers in these bands which is lost in the harder and more geometrically-cut curves of later ornament. Above this runs a frieze of little dwarf figures, such as are seen in Śiva’s gaṇa in the caves, in all sorts of eccentric and grotesque attitudes. They are possessed of great verve and abandon, so different to the stiff stereotyped figures of later times (Plate XVIII).