Essay on the Architecture of the Hindus c4.63

c4.63

The moulding called *padma*, (11) literally lotus, is supposed to resemble a petal of that flower. It is a sort of compound figure, partly convex and partly concave; and its section is composed of two opposite curves, meeting at the bisecting point of a line drawn between the points of recess and projection, and very much resembling the *cima recta* and *reversa* of the western architects. This moulding is distinguished into greater and less, and forms the principal ornaments of Indian architecture. It is generally employed in detached pairs, in bases and cornices, one facing the other in opposite directions, and is formed upright or the reverse according to its situation, either as a crowning member of the former or the supporting ornament of the latter. The concave part of it, when placed with its bottom reversed, is often so designed as to project forward or rise up, after having touched, as it were, the fillet below, with a small perpendicular curvature, resembling in shape the petal of the lotus, with its pointed head somewhat inclined towards the top. In some specimens, this moulding is placed at the base of columns, and looks very much like an *apophyge* or ogre of the Ionick and Corinthian orders, being formed either with a curved line having more or less convexity at the top, or with an upright tangent to the concave part below. It is sometimes made exactly in the form of an ovolo of the western architects.