The Hindu Temple v2.c12.8

v2.c12.8

The temple stands on a high platform; four small shrines in the corners (cf. plan of the Lakṣmaṇa temple, built in 954 A.D.; p. 255) which made it a Pañcāyatana temple, no longer exist. In plan, the main building, but for small discrepancies, is similar to the Lakṣmaṇa Temple. It is a Sāndhāra Prāsāda whose Pradakṣiṇa or ambulatory is extended in the Mahāmaṇḍapa; two pillars demarcate the Antarāla (cf. the Citragupta Temple, Pl. V, which also has two corresponding pillars flanking the entrance to the Garbhagṛha); the central square (vedi) of the Mahāmaṇḍapa is co-extensive with the square of the Kandabhitti (SS. LVII. 491), the walls of the Prāsāda,—the distance between the central square of the Maṇḍapa moreover being equal in the Lakṣmaṇa temple, to the side of the Prāsāda. Prāsāda and Mahāmaṇḍapa are contracted as one walled-in building to which are attached the Maṇḍapa and Ardha (half) Maṇḍapa as half-open, pillared hall and porch. Prāsāda and Mahāmaṇḍapa open up with Bhadras and Catuṣkikās in the middle of each side resulting in the appearance of two ‘transepts’ or a double cross shaped plan.