The Hindu Temple v2.c12.225

v2.c12.225

The all-over pattern has its centre in the squat Gavākṣa in the middle, opening up on each alternate stratum. Vertical clasps, midway in their shape between the oval Gavākṣa and the rectangular Bhūmi, and transferring their horizontal disposition, flank the Gavākṣas and further laterally themselves are the nucleus of a different unit of Gavākṣas. These close in above the main Gavākṣa, in the middle. They end in curls, and are repeated in S shapes, doubly holed and turned, in alternating vertical rows, confronting or addorsed; the scrolls end with a bird’s head whose neck encircles the dark hole of the Gavākṣa. This ‘creeper’ (latā) pattern however is less effective in its rhythmical, linear continuity than it is enmeshed in densely varied black dots and strokes, forming part of the multiform vesture of the Śikhara, the Padmakośa. Although mainly a pattern in white and black, it is graded in its carved surfaces; penumbras linger in its meshes; now this, now that, way following the movement of the sun.