The Hindu Temple v2.c11.s6.13

v2.c11.s6.13

The Celestial Beauties belong to the Āvaraṇa-devatās, "surrounding divinities". Their number is large. Their figures are repeated on the temples, all round the walls, to either side of each god, and as on the Kandariya and Devī Jagadambā Temples, in all the three belts of sculpture. (Pls. I and III). Such supererogation in carving their figures, alike in type yet indefinitely modified in each instance by a particular rhythmical consistency, shows repetition itself as a power in whose comprehensive rhythm are interwoven the images in rows and storeys. It is made concrete by art in the figures of the gods and the celestial women who, though they resemble the human shape, are unlike it. For the divine (daiva) and the human form "are born from one parentage. The divine form is endowed with more intellect (buddhi). The human form is not so endowed with intellect.”¹³¹