The Hindu Temple v2.c12.34

v2.c12.34

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.