The Hindu Temple v2.c11.s8.31

v2.c11.s8.31

¹⁷⁹ The Āmalaka has been shown to have an equivalent in the flat stones which are used to cover the opening of the top of the ‘spire of Toda-huts’ “where certain relics are intended to be hidden from the public gaze”, Simpson, ‘Origin and Mutation in Indian and Eastern Architecture’, published in ‘Transactions of the Royal Society of British Architects’, 1891, p. 253. In Barhut relief representations (R. Chanda, ‘Beginning of the Śikhara of the Nāgara Temple’, ‘Rūpam’, 1924, Figs. 1-3) a ring shape from which emerges the finial “shuts up the hole at the top of the dome”. Such shapes have played a part similar to that of the Āmalaka; there however the ‘ring-shape’ etc., rests on the dome, etc. itself and is not separated from it by a central shaft, as it is on the temple; such a separation would be meaningless in case of a structure; the super-structure of a temple however is a monument, it functions symbolically and not structurally. The vision of the celestial region and of the Cosmic Pillar became symbolic form by the transposition and transformation of structural shapes. To the same extent are the body and limbs of the images reminiscent of the shape of men although they are unlike it.