The Hindu Temple v2.c11.s8.40

v2.c11.s8.40

Indian pillars of later ages, from the Gupta period onward, retain the Āmalaka without or within its casket as constituent part of their capitals. These have many variations and elaborations but, as a rule consist of the capital proper, called Bharaṇa, ‘bearing’ (S.S. LVII. 69; LXIII. 56)—on many types of pillars it has the shape of an Āmalaka (Pl. LXXVI)—and a kind of bracket capital, called Śīrṣa or head. The intervening part, if present, is called Hīragrahaṇa.¹⁸⁶ Below the Bharaṇa a ‘collerino’ may be present, called Vīrakaṇṭha.¹⁸⁷ Vīra denotes the sacrificial fire and Vīrakaṇṭha is the space of an inch from the edge of the hole in which the sacrificial fire is deposited. This connotation has its origin in the same