History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c25.27

v2.c25.27

The plan of a northern temple is always a square internally, and generally the same form is retained in the exterior; but very rarely, if ever, without some addition. In some instances it is only a thin parallel projection, as at A in the diagram (No. 311). Sometimes it has two such slices added, as at B; but in the oldest examples these are only half the thickness shown here. From this they proceeded to three projections, as at C, the oldest examples being the thinnest. In more modern times the thickness of the projections became equal to their distance from each other, as at D; so that the temple became in plan practically a square, the sides of which were parallel to the diagonal of the original square or to the line E F G. Even, however, when this was the case, the cell always retained its original form and direction, and the entrance and windows kept their position on what had thus practically become the angles of the building. This is the case with the temple at Benares, shown in Woodcut No. 310, and generally also with the Jaina temples, and especially the case with the temple on the Takht-i-Sulaimân in Kashmîr. Although the depth and width of these offsets vary considerably even in the same design, the original square is never lost sight of; the four central angles, as at F, being always larger and more strongly accentuated than the others, and their line is always carried through to the summit of the pyramid.