Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c8.s1.9

c8.s1.9

Temples Nos. 2 and 3 in the first group, close to No. 1, and No. 5, are all of a later type by at least fifty years. They are characterized by less complex plans, and are practically free of figure carving on their exterior. No. 2, on the north of No. 1, though so much plainer in design, has its own merits, and cannot be considered a falling off from the more florid style of Nos. 1 and 4. It is a different style altogether, which seems to have been abruptly introduced, and to have been the type from which the later “Hemāḍpanti” of the fourteenth century may have been derived. Were it not that these temples bear the stamp of twelfth century work, one might almost think that the discontinuance of images upon the outside was due to the approach of the Muhammadans whom the Hindus soon had reason to dread as uncompromising iconoclasts and the most bitter foes of idolatry. Images, out of sight within a temple, might pass unnoticed, but those paraded upon the outside walls would but exasperate them and be a direct invitation to sacrilege.