The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c21.36

c21.36

As before mentioned, the architecture of Southern India from the ninth to the eleventh centuries bears witness to the vitality of Indo-Aryan culture at this period, and Sankarâcharya's influence was so lasting that even when Râmanûja subsequently succeeded in creating a diversion in favour of Vaishnavism, the temple buildings of the south continued to adopt the Saivaite forms of architecture in preference to the proper symbolism of the Vaishnavaite sect. Thus the great Vaishnava temple of Srirangam and the Vaikuntha Perumal temple at Conjeveram ² are designed entirely as Siva shrines, and differ only from the traditional type in the symbolism of the images worshipped there.