The Hindu Temple v2.c12.69

v2.c12.69

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.