The Hindu Temple v1.c9.s2.t4: IIC. The Composite Śikhara
The Hindu Temple v1.c9.s2.t4
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IIC. The Composite Śikhara
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Composed of elements of both the ‘overspun’ (IIB) and the ‘clustered’ (IIA) varieties is a third (IIC) type of the Śikhara (Pl. XLIII). Its central offset is carried on in continuation of the buttress of the perpendicular wall; the curve of this projection, covered with the web of ray-windows (gavākṣa), springs from the base of the Śukanāsā. Kept in shape by these offsets on its four sides, the breadth of the segments of this Śikhara is set with horizontal rows of miniature Śikharas alternating with cubical ‘Kūṭas’; these demarcate the storeys of this least ingenuous, and composite, form of the curvilinear Śikhara (Pl. XLV). It belongs to central India and the Deccan; there however the segments frequently are straight rather than curved faces and the four buttresses appear flung upwards like high, independent arches.⁷⁶ On the central Indian temples however with the uniformly curved Śikhara, the horizontal rows of Śṛṅgas and Kūṭas, far from producing a storeyed effect, appear as so many gigantic beaded garlands thrown up towards the neck (grīvā) of the Śikhara. The shadows in the vertical chases keep the single rows more deeply apart than the half shadows lingering over the slightly receding Kūṭas which alternate with the shapes rounded forth in broad light.
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⁷⁶ Cousens, ‘Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan’ op. cit. Plates, passim. Essentially however there is no difference in type between a temple like the Nīlakaṇṭheśvara at Udayapur of the 11th century (Gwalior; Pl. XLIII) and the temple at Jhodga, Nasik (Cousens, ib. Pl. LIII), although in plan the Udayapur temple is stellate, of the ‘Bhūmija’ variety (S.S. LXV), its buttresses and vertical rows of Śṛṅgas being placed on edge, and not parallel with the main buttresses. Kūṭas flank also the central Latā, in Jhodga, a peculiarity due to its more ‘southern’ geographical position.
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The straightening of the curve of the Śikhara, in the Deccan temples, is an assimilation of the Śikhara to the preference in the more southern parts of India for the pyramidal shape, which is the leading shape of a South Indian temple. This is not only a special feature of the ‘composite’ Śikhara (IIC) just described but also of the Śikhara (IIB) in the Deccan and can best be seen in the Pañcāyatana temple of Goṇḍeśvara at Sinnar.⁷⁷
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⁷⁷ Cousens, ib. Pls. XLIII-XLIV.
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The third or ‘composite’ main variety of the curvilinear superstructure (IIC) is neither overspun by the web of Gavākṣas (IIB) nor is it shaped by a central impulse and its proliferating activity (IIA). While it combines elements of both it loses the cogency of either form. In principle, though not in quantity, type II[B] is its more powerful component.
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Highly flung central offsets overshoot the body of the Śikhara and reach up to the Āmalaka. They terminate as a kind of flying buttresses, disembodied and carrying no weight. On some temples, especially in the Deccan,⁷⁸ they secede from the body of the Śikhara not only at the top; the buttresses, in the four directions, project from the body of the Śikhara like gigantic ribs witnessing a process of disintegrating form; their curved shapes are reminiscent of the bended branches of the Tabernacle.
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⁷⁸ Ib. Pls. LXVIII, LXX, XCII.