The Hindu Temple v1.c8.s6.6

v1.c8.s6.6

⁸⁰ This is not so in South India. There, the cube or the four sided prism of the walls, and the pyramid of the Bhūmis or storeys forming the superstructure are sharp in their distinctiveness and retain the outline of a drawing of the Tetraktys; an analogous form, pyramid on cube, is the rule in the structure of the Maṇḍapa in Orissa. In its vertical section moreover it does not coalesce with the Prāsāda into one comprehensive unit, but retains its integrity as a counterplay in the design of the whole. This is expressed by local tradition which considers the shape of the Maṇḍapa as female and that of the Prāsāda as male; while the ‘Bhuvanapradīpa’, XLII, l.c., speaks only of the ‘gainthiāla’, the ‘marriage knot’, between Prāsāda and Maṇḍapa.