Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c8.s2.4

c8.s2.4

The temple of Maheśvara, the largest and most important, is built upon the usual plan with shrine, *maṇḍapa* or hall, and porch. The hall has been an open one, the marginal pillars, supporting the eaves, standing upon a dwarf wall which encloses the hall. There has been but one entrance, on the east side, the direction in which the temple faces. The plan of the shrine is star-shaped, being formed on the basis of a circular star of twenty-eight angles or points. Two points are absorbed, on the north, west and south, in forming the central panels on those sides, and eight have had to make way for the antechamber and entrance. The inside of the shrine is, of course, square. The pillars are of a somewhat later type than those at Ambarnātha or Balsāṇe, but their design is dignified and their proportions good. The *kīrttimukha* mask, which does not appear in the basement mouldings outside, is used very much as a decorative detail on the pillars, which have absolutely no images upon them.