The Hindu Temple v2.c12.13

v2.c12.13

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.