The Hindu Temple v1.c9.s5.24

v1.c9.s5.24

The plan of the Temple of Ambarnātha (p. 230A)¹¹ in the Konkan, Bombay Presidency, built in A.D. 1060, shows, to the left, the Prāsāda with its (nearly) square Garbhagṛha and thick wall. It has no inner ambulatory and only one set of walls. The theme of its projections consists in one central Śālā on each side as broad as the interior of the Garbhagṛha, and having a further offset narrower by one third approximately. The lateral bays ‘pratyaṅga’ of the main buttress have 3 offsets on each of their two sides. A stepped and facetted wall of this Nirandhāra Prāsāda or ‘temple without ambulatory’ results from this simple plan with the Garbhagṛha a square of 3, the Prāsāda covering an area of 5 such units square and the furthermost projection of the wall extending to a distance of 3 such units from the Garbhagṛha so that the square of three occupies the centre of a ‘cruciform’ plan measuring nine such units across its arms.