The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c20.17

c20.17

The next group, farther to the south of the waterfall and having the same orientation as the Dumar Lena, marks the increasing fame of the Ellora tîrth. The eight shrines in the group, now numbered 24 to 17, are of about the same age as the Dumar Lena. The most remarkable of them is known as the Ramêsvara temple; its noble sculptured front is shown in Pl. LXIV. Opposite the entrance Siva’s bull, Nandi, is raised on a richly carved pedestal. Though very different in proportion and effect to their prototypes in the Kârlê chaitya-house and the Gautamîputra monastery at Nâsik, the decorative motifs of the massive dwarf pillars of the façade are the traditional ones derived from ancient Aryan symbolism. Lakshmî’s water-jar, the cornucopia of India, is used for a capital as the alternative of the amalaka; the legs of the Vedic altar which it was meant to support are here transformed into sculptured figures. The panelled treatment of the low screen-wall connecting the pillars is evidently a reminiscence of the Vedic railing, and the same motif in a modified form appears in the sculptured frieze above the pillars. The two columns in front of the shrine are of the same type as those at Elephanta, and the craftsmanship throughout the temple evidently belongs to the same virile school as the latter, representing the period when the principal seat of the Chalukyan government was at Nâsik instead of at Bâdâmi.