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The Hindu Temple v2.c12: Explanation of Plates

The Hindu Temple v2.c12

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Explanation of Plates

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FRONTISPIECE : AMARAKAṆṬAKA

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Amarakaṇṭaka in Baghelkhand (22° 41' N; 81° 46' E) is the abode of the chief of Sages (‘Epigraphia Indica’, vol. XIX. p. 295). From there the rivers Narmadā, Son and Mahānadī are said to flow to the West, East and North. From the days of the ‘Matsya Purāṇa’ to the present, this sacred site enveloped in its dust and the smoke of its fires, the pilgrims congregated there.

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The throng of the people and their leisure fills the space between the shrines in worship—or in ruins. There, under the trees, and near the water, their clothes have been washed and spread to dry; the various daily actions performed outside the temples are as much part of the life at the Tīrtha as are the rites of ‘drying up’ (śoṣaṇa) the impurities of the subtle body and purifying the bodily elements (bhūtaśuddhi) of the Sādhaka who has entered the temple.

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PLATE I. KANDARĪYA TEMPLE

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From S.E.; Devī Jagadambā Temple to the north of it, in the back-ground; buff coloured sandstone; Khajuraho (24° 51' N; 79° 56' E), Chatarpur State, Bundelkhand, central India. Tenth century.

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The Kandarīya Temple is a temple of Śiva, the Devī Jagadambā Temple was dedicated to Viṣṇu.* Khajuraho, the ancient Kharjūravāhaka (‘Ep. Ind.’ I. p. 139; inscription of the year 1001-2 A.D.), the ‘‘date-tree bearing’’, was the capital of the Candella Rajputs. Only 20 out of its 85 temples have survived; they were built in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Some of the craftsmen inscribed their names (on stones of the Viśvanātha Temple, c. 1000 A.D.). These names however cannot be connected with any of the major figures of which on the Kandariya temple alone there are nearly nine hundred (ASR. II. p. 419).

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The Kandarīya temple measures 102' 3" in length, 66' 10" in width and is 101' 9" high (B. L. Dhama, l.c., p. 9).

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The temple stands on a high platform; four small shrines in the corners (cf. plan of the Lakṣmaṇa temple, built in 954 A.D.; p. 255) which made it a Pañcāyatana temple, no longer exist. In plan, the main building, but for small discrepancies, is similar to the Lakṣmaṇa Temple. It is a Sāndhāra Prāsāda whose Pradakṣiṇa or ambulatory is extended in the Mahāmaṇḍapa; two pillars demarcate the Antarāla (cf. the Citragupta Temple, Pl. V, which also has two corresponding pillars flanking the entrance to the Garbhagṛha); the central square (vedi) of the Mahāmaṇḍapa is co-extensive with the square of the Kandabhitti (SS. LVII. 491), the walls of the Prāsāda,—the distance between the central square of the Maṇḍapa moreover being equal in the Lakṣmaṇa temple, to the side of the Prāsāda. Prāsāda and Mahāmaṇḍapa are contracted as one walled-in building to which are attached the Maṇḍapa and Ardha (half) Maṇḍapa as half-open, pillared hall and porch. Prāsāda and Mahāmaṇḍapa open up with Bhadras and Catuṣkikās in the middle of each side resulting in the appearance of two ‘transepts’ or a double cross shaped plan.

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∗ The Kandarīya temple was consecrated to Śiva; Kandarīya means ‘of the cave’. Some of the temples of Khajuraho are known under several names. The Devī Jagadambā temple, also called Kālī temple, was dedicated to Viṣṇu. The Lakṣmaṇa temple, also called Rāmacandra or Caturbhuja was also consecrated to Viṣṇu. The Citragupta temple, also called Bharatji temple, was dedicated to Sūrya. The Viśvanātha temple was dedicated to Śiva Viśvanātha, the Lord of the Universe. The Duladeo or ‘Holy Bridegroom’ temple was sacred to Śiva. The Pārśvanātha temple was dedicated to Jina Vṛṣabhanātha (Ādinātha), the first Tīrthaṅkara.

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In the vertical section (Fig. i, on p. 212) the Kandarīya Temple is seen to be a mountain of masonry from the base to finial; it is hollow on the groundfloor with its pillared halls and porches leading to the Garbhagṛha in which is the Liṅga. The floor itself is not on one level but is somewhat raised to form the Vedi or dais in the centre of the Mahāmaṇḍapa; it is raised to an even higher level in the Antarāla where steps lead to the Garbhagṛha. By the high level of its floor the Garbhagṛha partakes in the vertical ascent of the Prāsāda.

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Pillars and pilasters support corbelled domes; even within the Garbhagṛha the corbelled ceiling rests on pilasters; the pillars of the Mahāmaṇḍapa are extended beyond their capitals—the extension is called Ucchālaka—and are crowned by heavy bracket capitals, whereas half pillars are set on the seat (āsana), whose back projects slanting outward above the perpendicular part of the wall below it (which is also called Vedi; ‘Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra’, LVII. 29; 126; Pls. I. LI. LXXVI). At the end of this hypostyle, the Garbhagṛha with its walls, the main sanctuary within the temple, is set right below the neck (grīvā) of the Śikhara and the Liṅga has its place below the Kalaśa, the vase of the finial (Fig. i, p. 212). Between them the Śikhara rises, inaccessible to the devotee and to be seen from the outside only.

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The several halls, the great Maṇḍapa, etc., and the half-Maṇḍapa (Mahāmaṇḍapa; Ardha-maṇḍapa) each have their separate superstructure with its Āmalaka finial; miniature Maṇḍapas cluster on the superstructure of each Maṇḍapa and are subordinated to it in the same way as are the Uromañjarīs to the Mūlamañjari of the Vimāna. Similarly also the small trabeate domes of the Mahāmaṇḍapa cluster around the large dome in the centre below the peak of its roof. The pendant, projecting downward from the apex of the dome, is below the Kalaśa on the summit. The superstructures are graded in height towards the Prāsāda, that of the Mahāmaṇḍapa ending below the top of the Śukanāsā. On its ridge, a Siṃha overlooks the cascades of Bhūmis and the stations of the many Kalaśas showing their contents as an emerging bud-like shape (Fig. i, p. 212), the Bījasvara (SS. LVII. 425), the ‘seed-sound’ or primeval sound. The pile of masonry above the ground floor, but for one small Gavākṣa, has no external opening (Pl. IV); internally, ties made of stone slabs are laid horizontally at the height of the shoulder course (skandha) of the Uromañjarīs from the ‘sheath’ of the walls towards the internal piers. The compartments so formed are left hollow (Fig. i.) according to considerations of weight and stability. The central ‘shaft’ of the Prāsāda is ideally present and reaches from the floor of the Garbhagṛha, beyond its ceiling, also beyond the Skandha and across the Āmalaka; it is capped by a flat, inverted bowl shape above the Āmalaka and below the Kalaśa, which is known under the names Padmaśīrṣa (lotus-head); Karpara or Karparī (pan, skull); Candrikā (cardamon? a moonshaped circle) and Daṇḍikā (necklace) (S.S. LVII. 85; 170; 324, etc.). The first two names illustrate the ‘piercing of the skull’ of the Prāsāda by the bolt of the finial.

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The mountain range of the Kandariyā, and of the other temples similarly built, has its peaks arrayed above the longitudinal axis of the building; the deep indentations between them allow space,—it had found its entry into the ground-floor in the wide open balconies—a further participation in the total effect of the monument. It makes the mass appear weightless within a silhouette which shows ascent and descent and renewed ascent from a higher level, leading each time to a summit of its own. The outline of the whole temple has a movement different from that of the several structures which it comprises; rising and falling and rising always higher like the breathing of a runner as the goal lies near. The Śukanāsā is the last halting point (Pls. I, XLVIII, XLIX); its articulation is similar to that of the superstructures of the Maṇḍapa and different from the Śikhara of the Prāsāda of which architecture it forms part. So close do the Maṇḍapas come to the Prāsāda but here they stop; and none may exceed the height of the Śukanāsā. From there the Mūlamañjarī, in an elastic curve carries its Uromañjaris and Śṛṅgas towards its high finial.

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In deep indentations space lies between the ‘towers’ of the temple (Pl. I); in dark openings below projecting rooflets (chādya) it stretches along its length, within its body, a band of measured compartments which contradicts the volume of piers and Śṛṅgas and bisects the building; below is the pile of masonry raised on its terrace (Jagatīpītha; S.S. LVI. 124, gives its height as half of the width of the Prāsāda).

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The progressively arduous and repeated ascent and descent towards the pinnacle of the Śikhara limned against the sky in the lateral view, is not visible in the front view where the several Maṇḍapa roofs seem to coincide in one comprehensive outline and the effect is similar to the steep and direct ascent of the back view. These main views however are but a few out of the indefinite number of positions which are taken during circumambulation. The building is to be viewed from all its corners; each buttress, each facet, presents its three sides, the volume which they enclose and in addition, the volumes which project from them as sculptures and mouldings. The intersections of the horizontal and vertical volumes of the lower part in their continuity are summed up and gathered in the ‘staccato’ forms of pediments and the storeyed shapes of the superstructures of the Maṇḍapas and these have their response and integration in the large ‘legato’ of the curve of the Śikhara.

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This monumental, sculptured architecture is not to be understood functionally, nor in human terms, by empathy or a feeling into its form. An intricate instrument of precision and enduring stability of concatenated themes and rhythms, it leads to final unity.

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PLATE II. THE LION AND MAN

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In the porch of the Mahādeo Temple, a small shrine between the Kandariyā and the Devī Jagadambā Temple. The three buildings are raised on the same terrace. The superstructure of the temple of Devī Jagadambā is seen in the background. The image is carved in the round (ghanarūpa); its height is 4′ 8″, the length 5′ and its width is 1′ 6″. Khajuraho, tenth century.

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The Lion is a Devourer (grāsa); it is shown here with the whole face (akṣatamukha; S.S. LVII. 643), including the lower jaw, which however is broken off. Similar images may be discerned in a corner of the terrace and on the ridge of the Śukanāsā (Pl. I). The Chinthe, at the entrance to every Pagoda, is the Burmese equivalent of the Lion. It wards off all that is evil.

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The group of the Lion and man, a three-dimensional composition in curves, is to be seen laterally; a triangular shape domed by the sweep of the Lion’s head and shoulders, springs from a base charged with resilient power; there one globular shape is balanced on a higher level, the other touches the base; these two weights, the haunches of the animal, and the man are also turning points of movement. The group is rich in such pivotal points, in knees, hips, shoulders, elbows and necks. Between those centres of rotation a see-saw balance of poise and active energy is produced by volumes sharply outlined within parallel curves. The economy of the flowing lines of scarf and ornaments on the figure of man, the different patterns of hair, mane and whiskers, closely follow and intensify the modelled shape of which they form part. The beading on the animal’s legs and round its neck is cognate in its effect with the cogged rim of the Āmalaka of the temple in the background; it is subordinated to the several large single globes in the group, those of the head, eyes and nose of the lion, and face, head, chignon of the man—the club which he brandishes and also his small shield (they are seen only on the left side of the group). By the response of their physiognomies and heroic bodies, the animal and the man are confronted in similar arcs of breathing chests; while the frame of man yields it by an extreme effort in which is power, defiance and submissiveness, agony, in its literal sense,—it holds the outlines of his back in its grip,—the curve of the animal’s front has quiet power and the deep saddle of its back curve, dignity. The Lion but raises its paw while man throws forth his whole weight in the fight by which he wins the monster’s protection. Thus the two creatures form part of one group; it has its springiness in their lower limbs which form the balance of its wide base; the actual contest is wrought at the peak of the inner triangle of the group by the meeting of paw and arm; these limbs and the legs have the effect of elastic links in a triangular chain fixed in space.

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The height of the outer and inner triangle coincide in one vertical through the joint of the lion’s jaws, his paw and the man’s knee; the quantitative preponderance of the left part of the group and its repose has its counter-weight in the energy embodied in the figure of man.

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In this group are summed up qualities by which mediaeval Indian sculpture is conspicuous. It is neither baroque nor is it romantic; it has nothing to do with idealism but builds with symbol-elements of form the concrete reality (mūrti) of the work of art. The several phases and provinces of Indian art apply themselves, each in its particular livingness, to themes clearly seen and established.

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Residues of nomadic formulations, carried through central Asia, are stored in the repertory of mediaeval Indian motives. The tufts of curls on shoulders, haunches (the latter are defaced in Pl. II) and in the face, belong to it.

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The pose of the Simha with its paw raised can be seen on a signet of the third century B.C. from Amarāvatī (ASIAR, 1905-6, Pl. XLIX. Fig. 12).

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PLATE III. DEVĪ JAGADAMBĀ TEMPLE

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South wall of the Vimāna*; Khajuraho.

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The Nirandhāra Prāsāda was originally dedicated to Viṣṇu. It was a Pañcāyatana temple. The socle more closely resembles that of Pl. I than the one shown in profile on p. 259. The same mouldings, but different in their sequence and proportion, are seen here projecting from the Mānasūtra; the socle grips the ground and makes the walls of the temple appear rooted in it and the several edges of the perpendicular wall appear to rise with a concave flexion. Its impetus is steadied by the entablature mouldings (‘mekhalā’ and ‘antarapatra’, combined with ‘chādya’) in a thrice repeated band whence the Śikhara curves upward and is gathered in the Āmalaka (not shown in Pl. III).

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The projection of the plinth (pīṭha) from the Mānasūtra, is an aliquot part of the height of the plinth, (½, ⅓, or ¼) in principle; and projection and height of each moulding should also be proportionately related.

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The mouldings of the socle, the Pīṭha, in the temples of Khajuraho, are relatively more restrained than those of the lowermost part of the wall, the Vedikā, where the widely projecting Torus shape of the Kumuda effects a transition from architectural to sculptural form. It accompanies every buttress (ratha) and extends into every recess (salilāntara) with multiple repetitions of its profile, broken thus into a series of square pillow shapes with lateral extensions, like petals. This moulding with its neck, placed as it is above the combined Kumbha and Paṭṭikā below, has, on each buttress, the appearance of a small Stūpa-like monument; its front face moreover is carved in the likeness of a small shrine (kūṭa); its sheltering depth, on the major buttresses, is occupied by an image (Viṣṇu on Garuḍa, on the central Bhadra) while a lotus rosette takes its place on the Rathas. These miniature shrines in relief have an elaborately carved pediment (siṃhakarṇa) composed of Gavākṣas. The pediment exceeds the height of the Kumbha and, oversecting the recess, links the lower mouldings of which it is itself the highest surface, with the forms above the necking; it helps to knit the horizontal mouldings into a pattern of vertical offsets.

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Each of the belts of the wall consists of its Jaṅghā or wall surface proper and an architrave of which Mekhalā (or Mālā, Varaṇḍikā or Kapota) is the moulding and Antarapatra the necking; in lieu of the moulding, a rooflet (chādyaka) shades the niches of the Bhadra; its appears supported on pillars (stambha), a veritable shrine for the major images.

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Above the Mekhalā is an Ardhaprastara or half-entablature made of the consoles on which the images have their stand. These entablatures form the horizontal clasps of the Bhadras, Rathas and Pratirathas, which are the several buttresses and their offsets in front and either side. The vertical panels and facets in every plane, the innermost being that of the broad recess (antara) are beset with images, each on its ancone, and shaded by a cornice or rooflet and thus within the wall space. With every movement of the eye of the beholder a new perspective shows the images from a different angle; to avoid being bewildered, he has to concentrate on each of them, facing it, and then give his attention to the next, in the same way; their sum making up the iconostasis of the temple walls in all the directions. The single images, each on its panel, do not coalesce in groups; each panel, be it even without lateral pillars, is an abbreviated shrine of a particular divinity. The images approximate sculptures in the round (Pls. XV, XX, etc.), and remain attached to the wall where they lean against it. Sometimes a strut like extension of their contour or shape (Pl. XXXIII) helps towards an increased height of their relief.

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∗ Photograph by Johnston and Hoffmann, Calcutta. Cf. K. de B. Codrington, ‘Ancient India’, Pl. LXXII B.

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The triple belt of images as shown in this Plate has its major sculptures in the two central rows of the wall; their position, in the direction of the compass, determines their iconography. Different aspects of Viṣṇu figure in the centre of the main Bhadras in the South, West and East. In the South (Pl. III) are seen Viṣṇu on Garuda in the Vedikā, the lowest part of the wall proper, Viṣṇu and Lakṣmī in the first belt, and above it the Varāha-avatār in the second. The third belt has Devatās in their chariot (cf. its Āsanapaṭṭaka, etc. with that of the open, pillared, balconies of the Maṇḍapa in the extreme right of the Plate), in the Bhadras. The host of gods, in scenes of their sports (krīḍā-arambha; S.S. LVII. 644 f) is established in this narrow and high belt; the Aṣṭadikpālas and the other definitely identifiable gods occupy the highest offset on the respective Ratha and, as a rule, throughout the several zones; the innermost recess has invariably a Śārdūla for its subject; it is a Kṛtrimagrāsa (S.S. LVII. 777), a ‘devourer made by art’, its face is that of a horned lion or horned woman and often has the beak of a parrot, the proboscis of an elephant, a hog’s snout or a ram’s muzzle. Above the belts of images, a triple entablature is carried across the top of the wall, oversected by Siṃhakarṇas of the two Bhadras (the one a Karṇabhadra); their apex touches the level whence springs the Śikhara.

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The identity of each buttress in the vertical direction is shown as much in its divided yet unbroken continuity as in the iconography of its sculptures. It is further stressed by the small Śṛṅga or turret which caps each buttress and by the particular configuration at the base, which here has been compared to a Stūpa, within the Vedikā.

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To the row of small Śṛṅgas (tilaka) based on the entablature (uttara, the architrave) are added, towards the middle on each face of the Prāsāda, Uromañjarīs and also Naṣṭaśṛṅgas filling the corners (S.S. LVII. 745). Āmalasāra and small Āmalasārī crown each of the Śikharas but the finials have disappeared.

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The transition from the Prāsāda to the Maṇḍapa—the place of the Antarāla and Śukanāsā—is marked in this Plate by the Karṇabhadra on the right and the carved panels above it (cf. Pl. XLIX).

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The Maṇḍapa sends its Pitha with a forceful projection against the Vimāna anticipating further salients which terminate with the ends of the ‘transept’ in the balconies of the Maṇḍapa.

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The walls of the Maṇḍapa are an exact continuation of those of the Prāsāda. But the coronation by a Śikhara of its own is not there on any buttress. Pyramidal miniature superstructures in tiers take their place, though with a looser discipline.

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PLATE IV. ŚIKHARA OF THE KANDARĪYA TEMPLE From the South West; cf. Pl. I.

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The rhythmical compactness of the Śikhara and the dwindling of sculptured form into the texture of the monumental shape are brought about by the order of Uromañjarīs, four in each of the main directions, the lower clinging to the ‘chest’ (uras) of the higher. They are flanked by Karṇaśṛṅgas in parallel horizontal rows, three Karṇaśṛṅgas on the two lower and one in the third row, fill the corners from the Uromañjarīs in the East to those in the South. Intervening between Uromañjarīs and Karṇaśṛṅgas are Naṣṭaśṛṅgas (Khaṇḍarekhā) or ‘hidden’ small Śikharas, whose edge (koṇa) and Āmalaka are to be seen whereas the curvature of their sides is hidden and oversected by the adjacent Karṇaśṛṅgas. Four such Naṣṭaśṛṅgas belong to each of the two lower rows in each sub-quarter of the Śikhara. The one and only Karṇaśṛṅga, of considerably smaller size, of the third row sits on the corner (koṇa) of the Mūlamañjarī. It is flanked and exceeded by Naṣṭaśṛṅgas of considerable height. They terminate at the level of the second but last Uromañjarī and strengthen the theme of the Karṇas or edges of Uromañjarīs and Mūlamañjarī alike, with their horizontal divisions of Bhūmis.

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All the Śṛṅgas are crowned by two Āmalakas (two ‘aṇḍakas’; ‘aṇḍaka’-‘āmalaka’; S.S. LVII. 358) and a Kalaśa (some having disappeared); those of the bottom row are placed at the height of the apex of the Siṃhakarṇa above the Bhadra; those in the higher rows attain each to their own level and form horizontal clasps on the body of the Śikhara, in response to the stronger and unbroken bands of the Mekhalās on the walls of the Prāsāda. Each Śṛṅga is a replica of the Mūlamañjarī, the principal Śikhara, which emerges from the cluster of its acolytes at the height of the third Karṇaśṛṅga; there its corner is seen to spring upward, strong with many Bhūmis, whereas its full shape rises gradually above the Āmalaka of the highest Uromañjarī.

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The Mūlamañjarī (the ‘root’ or central, main Śikhara) is a Latārekhā of the Saptaratha variety; its curve is steeper than that drawn by ‘ṣaḍguṇa sūtra’; each of its four sides has seven facets (‘pāga’ in Orissan terminology) including the corner portion (koṇaka-pāga) which itself has one more minor central offset; the subordinate Śṛṅgas, alike in their ‘structure’, however have but five buttresses on each side (pañcaratha).

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The Karṇaśṛṅgas spring each from a square base which has a broad central projection on each side; this, together with its accompanying mouldings and a broader necking in their midst, takes up the theme of the architrave (uttara) of the Vimāna. These sharply cut horizontal bands are further accentuated by similar casket-shapes (kūṭa) at the springing of every second Uromañjarī and in the lowest corner of the Mūlamañjarī. A similar underlining gives to every Bhūmi a firm and clear start above the cogged ring shape of the Āmalaka crowning the lower stratum. The contiguity of round Āmalakas and the bases with their straight lines, affords a rich interplay of shadow effects, a mellow deepening of the horizontal clasps and the integration of these several shapes into the body of the one great Śikhara, the superstructure of the Prāsāda.

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The last consequences of the horizontal division of the Śikhara are drawn in the shape of parallel bands and neckings on the edges of all the Mañjarīs (cf. also Pls. XLVI, XLV, XLVIII). These fillets and their interspaces, visible as parallel light and dark streaks, are the final abbreviations of miniature storeys or tiers of whose sum total the bulk of each Śikhara is made up. But, however manifold and intricate these horizontal themes are, on the total Śikhara (Pl. I) their effect is slight; the horizontal theme which remains in power is that of the corrugated Āmalakas punctuated by their globular Kalaśas and pointed Bījasvaras.

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On the main surfaces of the offsets (ratha) of the Śṛngas, the tiers are over-spun by the carved Gavākṣas, a tight fitting sheath, as if of lace, with the round eyelets of the windows and the scrolls of tracery surrounding them in several patterns (jāla; cf. also Pls. XLVI, LXXI).

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In the totality of the Śikhara (Pl. I) these details are discerned as part only of the texture of the monument so that its surface vibrates at every moment of the day and the clear Indian nights with an ever responsive play of light and shade, a chiaroscuro of widest range, on its surface. The structure of the Śikhara however, the logic of its form, is a concert of ascending curves directed in many units each to a point of its own; they are organized and drawn towards the ultimate and only point on the tip of the finial of the Mūlamañjarī.

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The nearer to the base the greater is the mass, the nearer to the final point, the less is the volume, and the greater is the cumulative energy gathered towards and united in it.

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PLATE V. ANTARĀLA AND DOORWAY OF GARBHAGṚHA Citragupta Temple, Khajuraho.

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Flanked by the pillars and pilasters of its antechamber (antarāla), the doorway frames the image of Sūrya in the Garbhagṛha.

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Although this doorway has none of the synthesis of parts, none of the rhythm which connects, unifies and elevates the spectacle of this iconostasis to the high level of realisation on which the image, the seat of divinity, is beheld (as for example the entrance into the sanctuary of the Lakṣmaṇa Temple, Khajuraho) it is simple in its proportions and clearly parcelled out. The main parts of the surround of the door are : the high threshold; the lower part of the jambs with the large images; the upper part of the antepagments with the compartments of small figures, the lintel and the overdoor. The opening of the door is equal in width to each of the jambs and this being equal to the height of the large figure groups at the bottom of the door, the height of the door is twice its width. In such pure proportions are also parcelled out the minor units of the compositions,—the three shrines of Sūrya—on the lintel, and their inter-spaces, etc. The various planes' with their carvings between the powerful ovolo moulding of the outer surround and the flat innermost frame of the door with their changing shades redeem the all too regular lay out. The contrast moreover, of the modelled shapes which preponderate, with a linear type of carving in which dark shadows are set in flat tracery (door frame; lowermost fillet of base; pillars, etc.) adds richness but does not, in this particular instance, intensify the effectiveness of the display.

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The large female figures in the middle of the Śākhās are badly damaged but their extremely bent postures show them at one with the billowing of their own waves: nothing else particularises them as river goddesses; the scroll canopies full of Devatās seated on lotus flowers are vestigial trees; under their branches, the companions of the goddesses are carved against the different Śākhās and the images of Nāgas lean on the outer frame of the doorway. The Dvārapālas are assigned to the pilasters flanking the doorway (cf. also Lakṣmaṇa Temple).

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Some of the panels of the base far exceed in quality the rest of the carvings; the overdoor with its Gavākṣa-siṃhakarṇa frieze shows the flamboyant use of a well worn pattern. In the quantity of the required carvings, the sculpturally gifted craftsman also had his say in some of the reliefs, although the majority of the small panels (the image of Sūrya is about 5' high) were not touched by the divine spark. The dull opulence (cf. also Pl. III) of general views of carved expanses of the temple however is not there actually. The fierce light of the Indian sun or the semi-darkness of the interior sum up the intricacies, the all too meticulous details, and make of them the texture of the temple walls in which each carving has its proper place. The angle moreover from which it is seen changes with the movement of the devotee. Within the temple he proceeds towards the Garbhagṛha; outside he walks around the temple; wherever he may halt or his eyes rest, it is done in the course of a viewing in motion, in which the carvings present themselves from innumerable angles, until one of them is singled out and his whole attention dwells on its front view.

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PLATE VI. SŪRYA-BRAHMĀ-ŚIVA

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Image on the west side, central Bhadra, second row in the triple belt of images of the Śiva temple, called Duladeo, Khajuraho, 10th century. Height below 2'.

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Eight armed image; some of the arms are broken. The second but lowest pair might have held emblems of Viṣṇu so that this image of Sūrya, the Sun-god, would embrace Brahmā, the presiding divinity of the Sun, Viṣṇu, the presiding divinity of the Moon, and Śiva who presides over the Fire ('Īśānaśivagurudevapaddhati', III, Ch. XII. 27-29). Such an image is a support of a meditation on Sadāśiva and has its place of special importance on a temple of Śiva.

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Sūrya's "glowing" body is covered by a coat of mail; it has dwindled into a strip underneath the ornaments of his chest and extends to the belt. He is seated with his feet locked in Padmāsana, a long cloth covers them to the heels. This costume indicates that the consuming power of Sūrya's body is covered. In earlier images (from Mathurā, etc.), the body of Sūrya is completely shrouded in a coat of mail, high boots and other accoutrements of the dress of Northerners who had brought this particular cult to India.

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In his two hands Sūrya holds full blown lotus flowers, symbols of manifestation, on the triple stalk of time; this aspect is also upheld by the Śiva-hand on the right holding a Triśūla, the trident—where past, present and future meet in one point, while serpents in the left Śiva-hand are amongst the ornaments of Śiva; here they strengthen, in the opposition of their nature to that of the Sun, the total symbolism (cf. sun-bird and serpent) of the image. The Brahmā hands hold the rosary (akṣamālā), the cycle of time and its resorption, and the Kamaṇḍalu.

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But for the trident no other weapons are seen now in the hands of the image. The Viṣṇu hands might have held the disc and the club. The weapons held in the hands of the images of the gods represent portions of the unbearable power of the Sun which Viśvakarman had sliced away from it. Viśvakarman made the disc of Viṣṇu, the trident for Śiva and other weapons for these and the other gods out of the particles of Power that he took away from the Sun (cf. ‘Matsya Purāṇa’, XI. 27-30).

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This power lies radiant in the fiercely calm face; it gives its forward sweeping curve to the chest and to the lotus-stalk whose flower discs are set on either side of the full visage. The triple furrowed pillar of the neck is part of the erect posture of the image. It is overlaid and surrounded by heavy ornaments, arms and the weapons. The balance of form in the horizontal which passes through the lotus discs and the face and correlates their shapes amidst themselves and with the vertical of the body, has all the concentration of the mind and heart of the artist; the rest shows the skill of his hand applied on the framework of established tradition.

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The small mutilated image of Aruṇa, in the centre of the drapery, near the edge of the pedestal, lies in the vertical axis by which the Kīrttimukha in the crown of Sūrya is linked to the three horses carved on the pedestal, the seat of the chariot of the Sun-god.

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PLATES VII—VIII. AGNI

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Fire, the Guardian (dik-pāla) of the South-Eastern direction; on a Pratiratha (cf. ‘Aparājitaprabhā’, V. 12) in the South-East of the wall of the Kandārīya Temple, Khajuraho. The height of this and other images of the Kandārīya temple is c. 2' 9".

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Front and profile of the face of the image of Agni; it is carved standing, with a gently swaying ‘bhaṅga’ of the body and holding a book and a Kamaṇḍalu in his two left hands; the lower right hand shows the boon-giving Mudrā, the upper right hand is broken.

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The high crown of matted locks is not shown in the photograph, where only the root of the hair and horn-like locks are seen shading in a wide arch a low forehead, the rest of the face being encircled by the curls and terminated by the point of the beard, a tongue of fire. It rests on the chest against a pattern of jewellery similar to that of the Sūrya image though more simple and harmonising with the locks, the hair and the stern kindness of the face. The curly outline of the beard separates the face from the body and gives it the impressiveness of a mask smoothly modelled in flat curves in whose sweep the eyes without sockets, the wide brows have the strongest vibration. It spreads over the entire face which is unruffled, but changeable in expression; benevolent and irascible (Pl. VII), withdrawn and mysterious (Pl. VIII).

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PLATE IX. PART OF WALL OF LAKSMAṆA TEMPLE

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Khajuraho (954 A.D.); the back of a seat (āsana) such as surround the balconies (Bhadra; śālā) and run along the Ardhamanḍapa. (Fig. on p. 255.)

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From the seat (āsana paṭṭa) in the interior rises its back projecting outward with an obtuse angle (kakṣāsana; approximate height : 2′ 4″). It is part of the Candrāvalokana, the upper and open portion of the balcony (see Pl. LI) somewhat corresponding to a bay-window. The Vedi is here the vertical portion of the wall, below the lotus petal edge; it corresponds in its position to the ‘jaṅghā’ of the wall (see Pl. I), i.e., to its lowermost zone.

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The Vedi consists here of carved posts; they rise from a slightly recessed necking (rājasenā), itself divided by uprights into panels filled with deep shadows, figures and rosettes. The pillars of the Vedi are set in couples of which one is replete with a creamy scroll which has come forth from the mouth of a Kīrttimukha placed in profile or three quarter profile in one of the lower corners of the carved panel. The other pillar has its surface divided into several sections of which the ‘overbrimming vase’ and foliage is uppermost; below is an ‘Āmalaka ring’; then follow a Kīrttimukha, a scroll device inscribed in a circle and surrounded by scrolls, and, at the bottom, a scroll-creeper panel. These symbols of Indian and Nomadic extraction are carved, mature in every detail, in a florid relief. It would appear overcharged were it not so strongly permeated by linear rhythms accompanied by deep shadows. The reduction of the profuse modelling to a linear design is seen from some distance when the ‘pillars’ of the Vedi appear as part of the entire temple where they produce a white and black pattern which is furthermore strengthened by the vertical fissures between the coupled pillars and the short interstice between the capital shape and the straight edge of the adjacent pillar.

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On many of these pillar-shapes, and elsewhere too (the lotus-cyma, and Pl. X), the linear pattern is worked out in its colour contrast of light and dark and the relief is left in this unfinished stage, as if on purpose.

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The coping of the Vedi projects boldly over each capital shape; it recedes with a Gavākṣa-pediment, flanked by air-spirits, above each of the large Kīrttimukha-scroll-creeper-panels. Its wider projections are carved as miniature triple roofs, each (tri-chādya) crowned by an Āmalaka. The hard horizontal shadow thrown by the coping is intensified by a broader and more mellow band of shadows which cling to the rugged triple-rooflet shapes and to the lotus petal cyma above them.

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The Āsana-paṭṭa with its slanting back in rail form belongs to a stone-bench (cf. Pl. LXXVI) on which the pilgrims may rest in the ambulatory and the hall of the temple. The slanting back is made of round uprights—of bamboo prototype—by twos, and alternating with broad carved posts similar in kind to those of the Vedi and rich in pattern. [A similar Vedi, having a bench with its back sloping outwards, forms the parapet of the high terrace of the Lakṣmaṇa Temple; it connects the four small shrines in the corners (Fig. on p. 255.)]

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The whole architecture of the Vedi and Āsana is translated into stone from a wood and bamboo construction of carved posts and beams and slender bamboo upright, airily joined. The thickness of the posts belongs to their versions in stone; the high seat of the bench is supported by heavy pillars (Pl. LI), their shapes, fully carved, emerge from it and on it rest monumental superstructures. Images and architectural units are juxtaposed; geometrical shapes and fully modelled figures are contiguous.

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The walls of the temple are effective in several respects according to the distance from where they are seen. From afar, their intricacy is absorbed by the light into the texture of the temple walls. The sculptural work is integrated in the monumental building. Seen closely, and with the attention focussed on any of its parts, that particular unit is all engrossing in its significance as symbol and visual form. Between these extreme views is the one in which the reference is seen of one unit to the next, their combination, contrast and balance in the wisdom of their plan.

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PLATE X. OUTERMOST SURROUND OF DOORWAY

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Part view; on the right of the Garbhagṛha, and adjacent wall; Duladeo Temple, Khajuraho.

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The Śārdūla panel on the left is sunk into the antepagment (siṃhaśākhā) in the corner between the doorway and the wall of the Antarāla, at a right angle to it. The fillet of rosettes is the side of the antepagment, and borders on the wall whose scroll panel is seen in a strong artificial light. Next to it, a pilaster projects; it is set off against a lateral facet.

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The compositional theme of the three main panels is the wave. It rises and falls and carries its movement to the top of every scroll, lays it down at the crest of the main wave and having completed its eddying and interlacing in varied configurations, it returns its impact to its main carrier. This is shown as a creeper’s stalk pervading the whole panel and from it stem other branches which have one wave length only. They are cut flat and sharp, perpendicularly, in the stone in a pattern of light and darkness, intricate yet clear; the carving is left unfinished where further elaboration was not essential, to the effect, at the side of the entrance to the Garbhagṛha. In the surround of the door however they are clad in the shape of the Śārdūla with its rider and counterplayer who holds the creature’s tail in one hand and threatens it with the weapon held in the other; the protagonists are almost equal in size. But, when the warrior brandishes the same weapon while he has mounted the animal, he has lost his stature and the animal’s head is turned back, leering open mouthed towards its diminutive rider. These bodies are formed of a concatenation of waves; crossing at many points of their courses they ascend from the bottom (not shown in the reproduction) to the top of the panel and enmesh the playful fury of the recurrent combat. Three wave movements are thus interlaced; viewed from the top of the panel, the one glides from the chest-curve of the Lion to its buttocks, sweeps with its crest over the warrior and descends to the next lion’s chest, rising towards its buttocks whence the play goes on as before. The second wave passes from the profile of the lion’s head to the root of its tail and rising, passes from the warrior’s chest to his leg thrown forward, then again engulfs the next lion and sinks from the root of its tail to the warrior's cest, supports his contracted body and once again mounts along the lion's face, e., below. The third wave passes along the topmost lion's rounded chest and thelaws of his feet, thence across the warrior's chest thrust forward, thence to hisbuttocks and left leg thrown back, and then down to chest and claws of the secor, swastika-poised mannekin, and thus onward. The waves intersect on chest andbuttocks of the Lion and on the warrior's chest; within the waves the small riders engulfed securely on the back of the Śārdūla.

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The shapes of ma and the Lion are modelled like skins which tightly fit an afflatus of divine enegy. In Pl. X, mediaeval Indian sculpture is quick with life clear in its form

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The masters of 1e Duladeo Temple (Pls. XXIV-XXVIII) worked on a high level of inspiration. The word Vasala (Vāsara?) inscribed in different places on the Duladeo Templenight be the name of a leading sculptor.

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PLATE XI. SURASUNDARĪ

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Image on the Suth West wall, 2nd belt of the Kandariya temple (height 2' 9"), Khajuraho.

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The image is tat of a very young Celestial Beauty, a serving maid to the high purpose of the greter gods. Heavy featured, heavy limbed, coltishly stubborn, she holds a gourd-naped vessel close to her body. A small figure of a man or a Gaṇa squats at he feet and sips what little drink has inadvertently flown out to him from the full vessel of her overwhelming bounty.

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The figure tuns towards the wall of the temple in three quarter back view, and its face is nown in profile. It forms a volume placed diagonally in space against the gound of the relief. Her elephantine shoulder is pushed forward in her slow and unconcerned movement; it is summed up by the—extremely consciously—appctioned flux of the scarf across shoulder and back. The arm is drawn back towars it so as to allow its full effect to the globe of the breast and the milder curve of th hip. The angular, half awkward, half capricious drawing back of the arm, its ejow touching the scarf, leads to the key-point of the disposition of the volume ofthe figure within the prism of the stone on whose socle surface her feet are firny planted.

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In this keypoint, the main directions intersect of the three-dimensional composition of tis carving. The one diagonal in space is laid from the hand to the chignon, andthe second diagonal connects the right shoulder with the tip of the scarf and wich is fitted into the outline of the figure, on the left. The rectangle formedby these two diagonals has for its one side the edge of the buttress on the right, an for the other, a parallel drawn from the end of the chignon to the left heel. This rectangular prism is but half of the whole; the lower part, from the end of he scarf down to the heels is similarly traversed by two diagonals in space, linkin the one, the direction of the small person on the right, with the end of the scarf of he goddess, and the other, her left heel with the hand holding the vessel. In thi way the two congruous space prisms are similarly filled by the disposition of he round volumes of the image. The compositional movement in space leads from the shoulder in the foreground on the right to the left buttock in the background, and thence, in the lower half, to the foreground in front of the arm and leg of the small person. The highest surfaces of the volumes, on the right, are anchored in the depth at the opposite side, in the middle of the height of this image, at the end of the scarf.

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The second compositional movement in space connects the hand in the foreground, placed at the same height as the end of the scarf, with the end of the chignon on top; and with the left heel of the goddess; either of these are near to the middle ground of the relief. The compositional directions link the salient points in space of the image, across the depth of the carving, and connect its various levels amongst each other. This organisation in space is caught in a lozenge-net of diagonal lines which have their two main corners in the middle line of the image drawn at the end of the scarf, and across the hand and a loop of the hip-ornament, on the right, the one at the left tip of the scarf the other in the hand. The two other corners of the central compositional lozenge coincide, the upper with the meeting point of elbow and scarf and the lower with the point where the other end of the scarf emerges just below the knee. The meeting of elbow and scarf and also the place of the knee are the critical compositional points. They play moreover their rôle in the physiognomy of the form of the image, with its acuteness of the sharp bend in the elbow of the elephantine arm, and, similar in its over-emphasis, the stretched straightness of the legs which makes them appear jointless, more poles than legs were it not for the swelling curves of the thighs.

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The overstrained movement which makes joints bend at unforeseen angles or stretched out of existence, in this particular carving, is mild (see however Pls. XIII, XV, etc.); its curves are smooth; loops and clasps formed by various parts of the costume, in close adherence to the modelled body, mediate between the linear rhythms and the richer depth movements. Their interplay is steadied by oval and globular shapes such as the vessel, the face and the various fruit like shapes of the chignon, etc., which accompany head and back. All these rounded weights are strung along either side of the swaying and turning body. In its long, smooth legs is straightened out the exuberance of the upper part of the figure. To them the small person at the bottom is the final correspondence.

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PLATE XII. SURASUNDARĪ

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Part view. Kandariya Temple, SE wall (second row); Khajuraho.

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The image faces away from the buttress on which it leans but the inward look, the long curves of eye and brow, the chignon at the back of the head, even the long necklace lead backwards, to the wall of the temple.

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The left hand is raised with Triśūla-hasta, the right holds a bowl. Its curve is taken up, aggrandised, and leads along the arm of the image to the wall of the buttress. In the bowl of this arm the goddess proffers her body and gesture. The inward look, the harking back, of the goddess are accompanied by the sculptural disposition of the carving. Watchful of her secrecy, effortless and noble, this crowned goddess carries the bowl and gesture and also her own shape, in obedience to her task. As simple as is the shape of the bowl, are her ornaments. Closely adhering to the body they define its shape and show in their own, more linear way, its amplitude. Laid on the forehead, like an ornament, is the arch of the brow. It holds in its curves the expanse of the face, shown in front view and in profile at the same time.

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On another buttress wall, in the background, the image of another goddess is seen, its echo, it would seem were it not that it carries out a different function of its own and is, as an image, complete in itself, and, like its neighbour, part of the wall of the temple.

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PLATE XIII. SURASUNDARĪ

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Kandariya Temple, South East, first belt. Khajuraho.

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The walls at the back and behind the image act as screens which throw into full relief the sophisticated fragility of this high strung and enticing goddess.

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Wreathed around the axis of this sculpture, the lower part of the body in three quarter back view is turned at the hips so that the bust is seen in almost three quarter profile, the arm is thrown back for this purpose; the lowered head, almost completely in profile view is laid across the slightly tilted vertical of the figure; the face opens up towards the right from the chalice shaped chignon. This crescendo in volume of the head in one direction, while the face is lowered and seems to withdraw into itself in the opposite direction, is repeated in the next lower section of the ‘statue’ where the arm is pushed back in an acute angle where the breasts are seen and the hand clings to their round contour. The shoulder joint is here in the centre of the co-ordinates of the composition (cf. the rôle of the elbow, in Pl. XI), one passes through the elbow and the shoulder joint, the other from the contact of hand and breast, to the top of the chignon; through the centre of these co-ordinates moreover passes the main vertical of the image. It is tilted forward, follows the inner outline of the right leg and passes through the outer corner of the eye. There also passes the horizontal axis of the head, at a right angle to the main vertical; it has its parallel in a line drawn from the elbow to the hip girdle, at a point below which festoons are attached to it. Parallels to the main vertical connect the right elbow and the back of the chignon, and the raised left elbow with the outline of the right hip where the girdle rests. Thus the volumes around the sculptural axis are co-ordinated in the surface of the image, especially the cones or jutting angles of the arms. These moreover are diagonally connected in space and are balanced by the co-ordinate along which the body turns round in the hip, from buttock to waist. These co-ordinates are laid diagonally across the figure and have their centre at the tip of the armlet. The movement of the figure and the placing of its volumes around its sculptural axis, are balanced according to a geometrical plan in the surface; the linear rhythm of the composition and the three dimensional spiralic disposition of its volumes around their axis are integrated in this ‘statue of the temple wall’.

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Raised on high legs, the hip surges into roundness, restrained by chains of jewellery. This solid effervescence, bubble of carved stone, is the basic shape of the smaller globular and the large, angular volumes which are tossed around the body-axis in the upper part of the image of this eery temptress, uncrowned, ambiguous, and straining the possibilities of mediaeval sculpture to a critical point.

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PLATE XIV. SURASUNDARĪ, HOLDING A MIRROR

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Viśvanātha Temple (c. 1000 A.D.), South wall (2nd belt). Khajuraho.

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Steeped in the consciousness of her young, full and perishable body and swaying with the onrush of its sap, the celestial damsel looks deep into the mirror and her head droops towards its reflection on the curved surface held up and resting on her shoulder, part of her own sculptural shape. Recognition makes self-contained the group of the goddess and the mirror. The wave of her triply bent shape, rises, falls and rests on her stance. All conflicts appear resolved, all contingencies known. With a heavy heart and the smile of youth tribute is rendered to life which takes its course through her body.

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At home, if somewhat tired, in its harmonious shape, this image leaves no room for the pained charm of conflicting elements of form (as Pl. XIII, etc.). Here Indian ‘naturalism’ has made an image of Śakti as ‘natura naturans’ knowing her work and accepting her shape as its result.

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