Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v1.c34.2

v1.c34.2

Here in this chapter first the superior variety of 40 Prāsādas beginning with Śrīdhara is very eloquently described. We find in them not only the marvel of the architectural crafsmanship, but also the depth and eloquence of religious teacher giving sermons on 'Iṣṭāpūrta' (more particularly the Pūrta), the holy mission of human life and construction of the temples as the noblest and best means of its fulfilment. The author of the Samarāṅgaṇa-Sūtradhāra is here at his best. It is in these varieties that we can put into the ornamental style of the Lāṭa Architecture, the most characteristic ornamentative feature of the temple architecture in medieval period of Indian History. It was this period that produced some of the greatest and grandest temples in India, the specimens of which in the monuments are our great architectural heritage. I touched on this architecture, its styles and other points of importance in Part V, Temple Architecture. Here it is enough to say that the crowning part of the Nāgara temples, the Āmalaka is the chief ornamentation of these temples. The other manifold decorative motives are Śukanāsā, Kalaśa, Kūṭamuṇḍa, Bīja-pūraka etc. etc. together with paintings of Vidyādharas, Haṁsas, leaves, etc. etc. all taken notice in the proper place. Again the perusal of the individual temples and the dedication to some deity or other and the virtue in different degree and kind—obtained by their construction are illustrative not only of the zenith to which the Paurāṇika Dharma, inculcating the image-worship and founding Tīrthas, and building temples had obtained but also the development of the Hindu pantheon (vide more than two dozens of gods who have been described as the presiding lords of these temples) which it had reached.