[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Architecture and art](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art) › [The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915) › c19 # The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c19: Chapter XIII The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c19 - **Language:** English ### Chapter XIII ### [c19.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.1) THE DYNASTIES OF SOUTHERN INDIA—ARYAN CIVILISATION IN THE SOUTH—THE FIVE GREAT ASSEMBLIES—LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT IN THE TENTH CENTURY — SIVA TEMPLES AT BÂDÂMI—TEMPLES AT PATTADAKAL—THE VIRÛPÂKSHA TEMPLE — THE EVOLUTION OF TEMPLE PLANNING ### [c19.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.2) So far we have left out of account the history of the dynasties which carried on the Indo-Aryan tradition in the Dekhan and in Southern India, after Asoka’s great empire had resolved itself into different dynastic factors. The history of Indian civilisation is little concerned with the martial exploits of the different warrior kings who disputed for the headship of the Indo-Aryan communities in different parts of India, but a general outline of the dynastic record is useful for the framework of it. ### [c19.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.3) The most powerful people with whom the early Aryans first contended for the possession of Indian soil were probably the Nâgas, who figure so conspicuously in ancient Indian sculpture with their remarkable serpent crest, or headdress. They must not be confused with the mythical people, with bodies half-human, half-snake, inhabiting rivers, lakes, and seas and also the sky and the regions below the earth, which appear in the same sculptures. The origin of the Nâgas is as yet unknown : possibly their choice of a snake totem indicates that they were originally mariners and came to India oversea. After they had been driven out of the valley of the Ganges and the Jumna by the Aryans, they probably remained as the principal power of the Dekhan for many centuries. They were among the first of the non-Aryan people to come under the influence of the Buddha’s teaching, which must have brought them within the pale of Aryan civilisation; but except for some in-definite poetical allusions to them in the Mahâbhârata and the Râmâyana nothing has been recorded of their history. ### [c19.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.4) The period when Aryan civilisation began to extend over Southern India is also a matter of uncertainty, though the poetical account of it is given in the Râmâyana. As in the north, it invigorated and supplemented, but did not entirely supersede the older states of culture which existed before the Aryans entered India. Asoka sent his younger brother, Mahendra, to lead the Buddhist mission in the south; but even before the third century b.c. Aryan institutions had existed there, and the three principal dynasties—the Pândya, Kerala or Chera, and the Chola—claimed descent from the five Pândava heroes of the Mahâbhârata, who founded a kingdom with its capital at Indraprastha, one of the old Delhis. ### [c19.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.5) The first of these three dynasties was the southernmost, extending over the present Tinnevelly and Madura districts; the Keralas ruled the western districts; the Cholas the eastern and the central districts, now known as Mysore. Originally the latter had their capital at Uraiyûr, the modern Trichinopoly.¹ In the early centuries of the Christian era, and probably long before that time, the southernmost point of India was a place of pilgrimage for Brahmans from Benares.² In very remote times Southern India came into contact with the West through its great maritime trade. Gold and silver, pearls, coral and precious stones, pepper and other spices were sent by way of the Red Sea ports and the Nile to Alexandria. Pliny complained of the drain upon the resources of the Roman Empire on account of the wealth which went to pay for these luxuries. One of the Pândyan kings sent embassies to Augustus at Rome, and Græco-Roman mercenaries were employed in the armies of the Tamil kings.¹ ### [c19.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.6) ¹ Vincent Smith, “Early History of India,” p. 415. ### [c19.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.7) ² V. Kanakasabhai, “The Tamils 1800 Years Ago,” p. 21. ### [c19.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.8) ¹ V. Kanakasabhai, "The Tamils 1800 Years Ago," p. 37. ### [c19.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.9) There are some general descriptions of splendid cities and royal palaces in the earliest Tamil literature. Such details as are given indicate a close resemblance to the architecture of the north, and the employment of "skilled artisans from Magadha" in the construction of them is sometimes mentioned.² But the real architectural history of the south, or Tamil-speaking country, does not begin much before the seventh century, when the principal "Raths" at Mâmallapuram previously described were sculptured. This almost coincided with Hiuen Tsang's visit to Southern India (A.D. 640), where he stayed for a time at Conjeveram, then a large city and capital of the kingdom called Drâvida, which was ruled by kings of the Pallava dynasty who rose to power about the third century A.D., and for five or six centuries afterwards disputed with the three older dynasties for supreme rule in the south. ### [c19.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.10) ² \*Ibid.\* p. 25. ### [c19.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.11) The dynastic history of Drâvida in the seventh century is mostly concerned with the constant wars between the Pallava kings and the Chalukyan rulers of the Dekhan who had succeeded the Andhras about a century previously. The Chalukyans seem to have been of Rajput origin. Both Ajantâ and Ellora were situated in their dominions. The most powerful of Chalukyan kings was Pulakêsin II, whom Harsha of Thanesar, \*circa\* A.D. 620, endeavoured to subdue; but after a severe repulse he was constrained to leave him undisputed master of the Dekhan. Hiuen Tsang was also a visitor at Pulakêsin's Court at Nâsik, and another record of his reign remains in a fragmentary painting in the first monastic hall at Ajantâ, which is believed to represent the reception of an embassy which Khushrû II of Persia sent to the Indian king.¹ It is impossible to follow Mr. Vincent Smith in the inference he draws from the painting of this event by Indian artists that "it proves, or goes a long way towards proving, that the Ajantâ school of pictorial art was derived directly from Aryan culture, indeed, seems to have gathered new strength from its transplantation into southern soil; just as Hellenic culture, when it was decadent in the land of its birth, acquired new vigour in Italy. Sankarâchârya, who relighted the torch of Vedic philosophy in the asrams of the north, and Râmanûja, the exponent of Vaishnavism, were born there. When Northern India was being overrun by the Muhammadan invaders, the south remained the bulwark of Aryan institutions for several centuries, and many of the most important records of Aryan polity and culture are found there. ### [c19.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.12) The organisation of the Aryan village community remained intact in Southern India until the days of British rule. Râm Râz compiled his invaluable notes on Indian village and town planning from the traditional canons of South Indian craftsmen, and to the present day the art of Southern India, decadent as it generally is, yet retains more of the virility of the classic Indo-Aryan period than is generally found in those parts of India which remained longer subject to Muhammadan influence. ### [c19.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.13) The earliest Tamil literature confirms the accuracy of Megasthenes in reference to the "Five Great Assemblies." The members of them took precedence in royal processions after the king's principal officers of State.¹ Of the different classes composing the Assemblies, the representatives of the people safeguarded the popular rights and privileges which Indo-Aryan institutions bestowed upon them; the priests controlled all religious ceremonies and the administration of temples; the physicians directed State sanitation; the astrologers fixed auspicious times for public ceremonies and foretold coming events; the State officials attended to the collection and expenditure of revenue and the administration of justice.² ### [c19.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.14) ¹ V. Kanakasabhai, "The Tamils 1800 Years Ago," p. 143. ### [c19.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.15) ² \*Ibid.\* pp. 109-10. ### [c19.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.16) A considerable number of inscriptions of the Pallava period discovered by the Archæological Survey of India refer to the system of local administration by the Councils of Five. But the most interesting and detailed in its information are two which are inscribed on the walls of a Vaishnavaite temple in the Madura district. They belong to the early part of the tenth century A.D., when a Chola king, Parântaka I, had possessed himself of Madura, the Pândya capital. The inscriptions relate to the king's intervention in the affairs of a municipality in his dominions, called Uttaramêru-Catursent from the royal Court in drafting the final settlement refers to the members of the Assembly with the honorific \*Tiruvadiyâr\* (their Majesties), and it is by their command and not by royal mandate that the rules approved of are promulgated: "At the order of the great men sitting in the Assembly, I, the Arbitrator, Kâdadippôttan Râjum rules were made to suit local circumstances ; for other inscriptions show that cultivators and merchants were on the voters' register in other villages. ### [c19.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.17) The settlement enjoins that of those possessing the above qualifications only those who are well conversant with business and are virtuous shall be nominated, and that preference should be given to anyone " whose mind is pure and who possesses honest earnings, who had not served on any of the committees in the previous three years." ### [c19.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.18) The disqualifications for membership are then stated. Nepotism was guarded against by the rule that none of the near relatives (a long list of whom is given) of any nominee for office shall be eligible. Anyone who had been outcasted, or was a " foolhardy " person, or who had committed incest or theft, or had become a " village pest," was to be permanently disqualified. ### [c19.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.19) The names of the nominees for each of the thirty wards were to be inscribed on voting tickets, and on the day of election a meeting of the General Assembly was convened by the Finance Committee of the current year at the principal temple. All the priests attending the temple were expected to be present in the inner chamber (\*antarâla\*). The nomination tickets for each ward were tied up in separate packets and placed in a jar or voting urn. Then the eldest of the temple priests held up the jar before the whole assembly, and one of the packets was drawn at random by any young boy who stood near. The packet thus drawn was placed in another jar, and from this the boy drew one nomination ticket and handed it over to the arbitrator, or returning officer, who was to receive it " on the palm of his hand with the five fingers open." The arbitrator then read out the name on the ticket and it was handed on to be read out in turn by all the temple priests present. One nominee for each of the wards was similarly drawn and declared duly elected for the ensuing year of office. ### [c19.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.20) From the members thus elected, twelve of the oldest and most learned, or those who had previously served on the Park and Water Committees, were selected for the "Annual Committee." Twelve of the rest were chosen for the Park Committee, and the remaining six formed the Water Committee. The term of office for each committee was one year; but any member guilty of misconduct was to be removed at once. ### [c19.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.21) There were separate nominations for the Panca Vara Committee, which apparently checked the work of the other four; and also for the Finance or "Gold Committee." The elections for these committees took place in the same manner as that prescribed for the other three. A sixth committee, "For the Supervision of Justice," is mentioned, but the mode of its election is not specified. It may have been nominated by the king, who was presumed to be the incarnation of justice and who represented the final Court of Appeal. ### [c19.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.22) The settlement concludes with rules for the appointment of the local accountant. He had to prepare his own accounts and submit them to the "Great Committee" for audit at the expiration of his term of office; his honesty must be vouched for by the Committee before he could be reappointed. ### [c19.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.23) Other South Indian inscriptions record the interesting fact that women were eligible for membership of these committees; mention is made of one who served on the Committee of Justice. ### [c19.24](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.24) Hiuen Tsang's record of his travels gives us information of the different religious sects existing in Southern India in the seventh century. The Jains were numerous and flourishing, but Buddhism, as a sect, had almost ceased to exist. According to tradition, the Jains are said to have gone south owing to a great famine in Northern India in the first century B.C. The old Jain temple at Aihole has already been described, and also the characteristic roofing of Canarese Jain temples, the form of which was dictated by local climatic reasons. Jainism cannot be said to have created a special architecture of its own, for wherever they went the Jains adopted the local building tradition. In Northern India Jainism followed the Vaishnava cult in building, and their \*tîrths\*, or places of pilgrimage, were the sacred hills, like Palitâna, Girnâr, Âbû and Pârisnath, upon which they built "cities of the gods" consisting of innumerable temples crowned with the symbol of Vishnu's holy mountain, the sikhara, and grouped together on a regular plan like a village. In Southern India they adopted the "Dravidian" or Siva type of temple; only using the Vishnu symbol in sculpturing colossal images of their Tîrthankaras as Pillars of the Universe. These temples mostly belong to a later chapter of Indian architectural history which does not come within the scope of this book. ### [c19.25](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.25) SIVA TEMPLE AT BĀDĀMI ### [c19.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.26) The Saiva cult, after the decline of Buddhism, took deep root in Southern India, and even when a Vaishnava propaganda was successful there it had little influence on the local architectural tradition, for the Vaishnavaite temple differed only from the Saivaite in the symbolism of the sacred images which were worshipped. ### [c19.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.27) As in the north, the period from the seventh to the tenth centuries was a great architectural epoch in Southern India. The most characteristic of the Mâmallapuram monolithic shrines which belong to the beginning of this epoch have been described in a previous chapter. In the neighbourhood of Bâdâmi, situated in the Bijâpûr district of the Bombay Presidency, there is a small but exquisite temple of the same age, known as the Mâlegitti Sivâlaya temple, which shows South Indian art in its perfection. It is built of stone finely jointed without mortar, and is one of the earliest structural temples of the Siva type now known. It is placed on the summit of a rocky hill with surroundings of similar character to those of Ajantâ. The cubical shrine with its pyramidal tower (Pl. LVII) closely resembles that of Arjûna's Rath at Mâmallapuram, but the entrance faces the rising instead of the setting sun, as it is dedicated to the benign aspect of Mahâdeva. It differs from the Mâmallapuram temple in having a mandapam, or hall of worship, about 20 feet square added to the antarâla of the shrine. This has a terraced roof surrounded by sculptured monastic cells used only symbolically. The walls which enclose the mandapam have two windows on the north and south filled with perforated stout lattices. In front of the mandapam there is an open porch supported by four massive pillars. ### [c19.28](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.28) The classic proportions of the whole structure and the exquisite taste of the sculptured ornament of this little temple will be a revelation to European artists who only know Indian architecture from the over-laboured craftsmanship and redundant decoration of the decadent period. A smaller shrine in the same neighbourhood (Pl. LVIII) and of about the same age reveals the unerring judgment of the Indian master-builder in choosing his site and adapting his structural design to the formation of it. It seems almost as if the Divine hand which piled up this steeple of living rock above the river bank had also sculptured the temple as its finial, so cunningly has the craftsman adapted the canons of his art to the place chosen for the shrine of the Deity. ### [c19.29](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.29) Not far from Bâdâmi, in the ancient Chalukyan territory, is Pattadakal, a place as yet unheard of by most European students of architecture, but remarkable for some of the finest and most interesting structural temples in India. It is not far from Aihole, a little to the south of Bijâpûr, famous for its great mosques, tombs, and other buildings of the Muhammadan period. The Virûpâksha temple, the largest of ### [c19.31](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.31) SIVA TEMPLE AT BÂDÂMI ### [c19.32](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.32) them, has a definite date, an inscription showing that it was built by a king of the Chalukyan dynasty, Vikramâditya II, who ruled from 733 to 747. It is of the Siva type of and Bâdâmi were built and before the granite rocks of Mâmallapuram were sculptured. The real explanation is, I believe, to be found in the study of the planning of the great cathedral temples of India, such as the Virûpâksha temple at Pattadakal. ### [c19.33](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.33) The great temples of India were rarely, if ever, built for their own sake, to make a place known as a religious centre. They grew gradually out of the sacred associations of the sites which they occupied. Pattadakal must have been noted as a place of pilgrimage for many centuries before the Virûpâksha temple was built: some yogi of great fame may have lived there under his chosen Bodhi tree, growing where the natural formation of the ground suggested a symbol of his cult, or where the beauty of the prospect inspired pious thoughts. When the yogi died, his stûpa would be raised near the same tree, and pilgrims would flock to worship at the shrine Vishnu the Preserver and Siva the Lord of Death. When the tree died, another shrine crowned with Vishnu's sikhara would be built to mark the place where it grew. The two shrines would remain perhaps for many centuries quite insignificant in size and with no architectural pretensions, until some royal devotee or wealthy merchant would pay for enclosing the holy places in splendid caskets of sculptured stone, and for the accessory buildings which provided accommodation for the priests and pilgrims who worshipped there. An inscription would record the donor's name and the date of this devotional act; the previous history of the shrines would remain only as a tradition in the minds of the people. To the outside observer, who saw only the buildings, it would remain a blank. ### [c19.34](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.34) This is the story which the plan of the Virûpâksha temple (fig. 56) tells us. The nucleus of the plan originally was a plain cubical cell covered by a dome like the buildings shown in the Nineveh relief (fig. 40). At first, perhaps, it was built only of This page is completely blank. There is no text, heading, footnote, or figure to transcribe. ### [c19.35](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.35) TEMPLES AT PATTADAKAL, GENERAL VIEW ### [c19.36](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.36) rough stones or of bricks. When it fell into ruin, another one, still small in size but of better material and construction, was built in place of it. The magnificent pile of the eighth century was the casket of sculptured stone which enclosed one of the earlier shrines, leaving a path for the pradakshinâ rite all round it. ### [c19.37](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.37) The details of the Virûpâksha temple have never been adequately photographed, but the design of the whole tower built over the holy of holies can be seen in the illustration of another Siva temple at Pattadakal (Pl. LX): it differs only in minor details from the Virûpâksha temple. ### [c19.38](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.38) FIG. 56.—Plan of Virûpâksha Temple. Scale, 100 ft. to 1 in. (From Fergusson's "History.") ### [c19.39](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.39) The structural principle of its design has been already explained (p. 120). It closely resembles the Bâdâmi temple and Arjûna's Rath at Mâmallapuram (Pl. XXVIII); but the roof of enclosure. The shelters of the fighting men upon the walls became monastic cells. ### [c19.40](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.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. ### [c19.41](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.41) Though in a bad state of preservation, one of the most striking features of the Virûpâksha temple is a masterpiece of architectural sculpture, the detached Brahmâ shrine placed in front of the mandapam enclosing Siva's symbol, the bull Nandi (Pl. LXII). It combines the stateliness of the classic design of Europe with the fervid imagination of Gothic art. The finest modern sculpture of Europe has a close kinship with it. If M. Rodin's genius had been devoted to building design, he would have created architecture like this. ### [c19.42](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.42) It would be a mere solecism to compare these Indian Siva shrines with Renaissance buildings like St. Paul's in London or St. Peter's in Rome. The Indian builder was too sincere in his religious feelings to try to amuse the eye with meaningless "effects" of line or form, or to exhibit for public applause his cleverness as a composer of "style." The temple was not an archæological essay, but a sermon in stone, suggesting in its symbolism the rhythm of the cosmos, teaching the lessons of the universal life, and recording the sacred traditions of the Indian people. There is, nevertheless, a closer æsthetic affinity between these South Indian temples and the Parthenon of Greece than in any of the buildings of the Renaissance of Europe. ### [c19.43](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.43) TOWER OF SIVA TEMPLE, PATTADAKAL ### [c19.44](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.44) Pl. LIX gives a general view of the two temples,¹ but ### [c19.45](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.45) ¹ From Fergusson's "Mysore and Dharwar." ### [c19.46](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.46) FIG. 57.—Virûpâksha Temple at Pattadakal, South Elevation (from a Drawing by Mr. H. Cousens). Scale, 20 ft. to 1 in. ### [c19.47](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.47) the fine proportions are considerably marred by the fact of the sculptured plinth upon which they both stand being buried underground. ### [c19.48](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.48) Mr. Cousens' drawing of the south elevation (fig. 57) represents the plinth of the Virûpâksha temple after excavations have been made. Possibly these have not yet been carried down to the original ground level, for the famous sculptured Kailâsa temple at Ellora, which is almost a duplicate of the Pattadakal temple, has a lower plinth with a high dado of magnificently sculptured elephants in high relief (Pl. LXVIA), which adds greatly to the grandeur of the design. The Pattadakal original of the Kailâsa temple has not yet received the attention due to it as one of the master-works of the classic period of Indian architecture. Fergusson's meagre description does scanty justice to it. ### [c19.49](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.49) The Vishnu shrine adjoining it is shown in the foreground of Pl. ### [c19.52](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.52) STONE LATTICES, VIRÛPÂKSHA TEMPLE, PATTADAKAL ### [c19.54](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.54) Many of the great South Indian temples repeat the plan of the Indian village in their enclosing walls, with gopurams on all four sides. This is not so frequent an occurrence in Northern India, which was so much more completely under Muhammadan domination, probably because the Muhammadan rulers razed the outer defences of Hindu temples for military reasons; but it may be seen in the plan of the Mârtând temple in Kashmir (fig. 46), where the lines of the two main streets of the village plan are also repeated. ### [c19.55](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.55) When a famous shrine like the Virûpâksha temple attracted more pilgrims than could be accommodated under the walls, or when a pious king wished to increase the endowments of Brahmanical learning which belonged to the temple, the difficulty of enlarging the original sacred structure was overcome by the expedient of enclosing the first quadrangle with a larger one, the gopurams of the latter being correspondingly greater in width and height. The temple of Tiruvallûr (fig. 58) is an example of this natural process of organic growth in building which Fergusson, with curious inconsistency, criticises as a "false system of design." To satisfy architectural theorists, the builders should have pulled down the innermost shrine, with all its immemorial traditions, and rebuilt it on a larger scale according to the "true principles" of design. ### [c19.56](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.56) As a matter of fact, in every South Indian temple which was completed according to the intention of the original builders, the tower of the holy of holies always dominated the gopurams of the mandapam and those of the walls of the quadrangular enclosure, as it does in the Virûpâksha temple. The great temple at Tanjore, completed about the beginning of the eleventh century, is a conspicuous example of this rule. The expedient of making the outer gopurams the principal structural features was only adopted when some ancient and highly venerated shrine already existed on the site, and it might be considered desecration to touch it or to disturb the meditations of its pious custodians. ### [c19.57](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.57) This system of adding enclosure to enclosure gradually created the best known of the great temples of Southern India, like those of Srirangam, Râmêsvaram, and Madura, with their towering gopurams forming landmarks for many miles around ### [c19.58](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.58) FIG. 58.—Temple at Tiruvallûr (from Râm Râz’s Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus). ### [c19.59](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.59) them. Within the outer courts numbers of subsidiary shrines, bathing tanks, and "halls of a thousand pillars," representing the parks or groves of the Indo-Aryan village, were built to provide for the vast crowds of pilgrims which congregate there at the time of great festivals, while numerous bazaars supply them with food and other necessaries. ### [c19.60](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.60) In most cases the existing outer enclosures are additions or restorations made since mediæval times; but it must be ### [c19.62](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.62) NANDI SHRINE, VIRÛPÂKSHA TEMPLE, PATTADAKAL ### [c19.63](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19.63) understood that the traditions which ascribe great antiquity to the temples cannot be dismissed as Brahman fables. The nucleus of the temple may be an ancient structure associated with the first penetration of Aryan religion into Southern India. The successive enclosures are the record of the unbroken tradition of the Indo-Aryan building craft from remote antiquity to the present day. ## Linked texts (8) - [Mahābhārata](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.vyasa) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.ramayana.valmiki) — Vālmīki, Sanskrit - [Mamallapuram](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.mamallapuram) - [Girnar](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.girnar) - [Badami](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.badami) - [Ajanta](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.ajanta) - [Rameswaram](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.rameswaram) - [Aihole](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.aihole) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.havell-1915.c19) · Pramāṇa