The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c11.8

c11.8

These sun-windows, as they may be called, in the oldest Indian buildings had no sculptured ornament, but in carved representations of them as symbols the ends of the purlins which supported the rafters of the roof were shown, and also, as a rule, the wooden screen or lattice which filled them. Later on, at Ajanṭâ and elsewhere, an elaboration of the symbolism was brought in (fig. 18). The outer edge on each side started at the springing from the mouth of a *makara*, a fish-dragon, which suggested the water or cosmic ocean from which the sun rose, and into which it sank at eventide: it was an emblem of the clouds or vapours which sometimes veiled, but never impaired, the glory of the sun.¹ At the pointed crown of the sun-window was carved the head of another dragon—Râhu, the demon of the eclipse—philosophically regarded as a manifestation of the tâmasic quality of Siva which Vishnu, the Preserver, prevented from destroying the universe. Sometimes, when the sun-window was only a symbol, it was filled by a single head representing Siva, either in his sâttvic or tâmasic