The Hindu Temple v1.c8.s3.11

v1.c8.s3.11

Two types of figures are to be discerned on the socle, etc. and vedikā; either a row of heads only or of whole figures; the latter are shown in motion, each with its own particular activity and movement. Horses run, men make war, or love, etc.; they are restored to their own sphere of activity in this Saṃsāra (see Part VIII) at the base of the temple. Memory as embodied in traditional, sacred architecture does not mechanically repeat former contents; they are remoulded with every remembrance. Hence, not only their variety, but also their manifold substitutions. The ‘heads’ of the various animals are summed up by one kind of head only, that of the Face of Glory, the Kīrttimukha, the Grāsa, for instance on the Devī Jagadambā temple, Khajurāho, etc. In Ramgarh (Kotah State) the following are carved on successive fillets of the socle, in vertical succession: (1) Kīrttimukha, (2) Elephant, (3) Lion, (4) Horse, and (5) Man. In northern Gujerat, the face of the socle (pīṭha) is carved with a series of enrichments of its horizontal fillets: the Grasapaṭṭa, with the head of the Kīrttimukha, in ceaseless repetition; the Gajathara, the elephant course, which is not essentially present; the Aśvathara and Narathara, courses of horses and of men respectively (J. Burgess—H. Cousens, bottom of the temple, where the Vāstupuruṣamaṇḍala represents its main residue, coterminous as it is actually or in principle with the Vedi, the total site, or with the extent of the Prāsāda. Reiterated in name, elevated in position and meaning, on a higher level of the temple, once more, the name Vedi is given to the upper portion of its superstructure, the Śikhara,⁴⁷ on which is placed its crowning part the Āmalaka and then the finial. This Vedi may be called the Uttara Vedi of the temple.