Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c9.s1.9

c9.s1.9

In the walls of the hall, on either side of the entrance to the antechamber, are large framed niches for images, but these are absent. There are also larger ones in the side walls of the antechamber itself, one in each side. The beam across the entrance to the antechamber is cracked and is supported by a stone prop. The shrine doorway is of the same pattern as the outer or main doorway, being rather more elaborate than that of temple No. I at Balsāne, and a great deal more so than that of the Jaina temple at Añjaneri. Save for the clumsy threshold stone, which seems to have been an after insertion, the Balsāne doorway is a stronger and more chaste design than the Sinnar one. In this, the pilasters, on either side, which support the cornice, are less prominently marked, and are more or less lost in the group of mouldings which surrounds it. The kīrttimukha face, which is, as a rule, found upon the threshold, does not occur here. The interior of the shrine is plain, the floor being on the same level as the hall floor; and in the middle of it is a large liṅga. The present Nandi, in the Nandi paviliōn, appears to be a comparatively new one; another one about the same size, with the headless fragments of two others, lie below on the pavement.