The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c19.40

c19.40

The mandapam of the Virûpâksha temple is of the same design as that of the temple of Bâdâmi described above, but it is more than double the size of the latter—*i.e.* about 50 feet square. The roof is supported by sixteen monolithic pillars with sculptured bracket capitals, and the enclosing walls on each side are pierced by four windows. The pierced stone lattices which fill the latter (Pl. LXI) are the prototypes of those which were so conspicuously beautiful in Muhammadan mosques and tombs at Ahmâdâbâd and elsewhere. All the motifs, geometric as well as floral, used in what are wrongly called "Indo-Saracenic" lattices are found in Indian temples of this early period. Except for the substitution of Arabic texts for animal and human forms as decoration, Islam brought nothing new to the masonic craft of India. Indo-Muhammadan architecture belonged root and branch to India's own tree.