The Hindu Temple v2.c12.15

v2.c12.15

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.