Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v1.c56.381

v1.c56.381

The super-structure, crowned by the Āmalaka is the third and highest part of the body of the Prāsāda (the two other main parts of Prāsāda being the solid base or socle, its altar and the sanctuary the Garbhagṛha with its vertical walls). No composite name could be evolved for the superstructure of the Prāsāda, the whole finial. Samarāṅgaṇa Sūtradhāra enumerates in many passages the several parts of the finial, the Candrikā or Padmaśīrṣa, the Kalaśa or Kumbha and on it the Bījapūraka, Bījeśvara etc, (LVÍ. 153-54. LVII. 136; 425; 719). I have already remarked (vide the “Development of the Temple Architecture” the III Chapter) that the Prāsādas as described in the S. S. with their curvilinear super-structures (Śikharas) correspond mostly to the monumental shapes of the temple. The construction of the curvilinear Śikhara, by means of a division in geometrical progression by fourfold division (Caturguṇa sūtra) was the rule in the canons as enunciated by pre-Samarāṅgaṇa works like Agni Purāṇa XLII. 15-17 and Hayaśīrṣa Pañcarātra XIII. 32.4 This canon no more held good by the time of the S. S. This height of the trunk of the Śikhara given should be divided by geometrical progression into a certain number of parts—three, four, five or six according to the S. S. (LVI. 137 and LVII. 817). The description of such a Śikhara fits in with the temples more profoundly at Bhuvanesvara (and also at Khajuraho).