A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c8.41

c8.41

A particularly elegant example, 52½ feet in height, which faces a Jain temple at Mūdabidri in South Kanara, not far from Mangalore, is shown in Fig. 6. The material is granite, and the design is of singular grace. The work may be assigned to the eleventh or twelfth century, but I do not know its exact date. About twenty of these pillars exist in the South Kanara District. As Mr. Walhouse truly remarks: 'The whole capital and canopy are a wonder of light, elegant, highly decorated stone-work; and nothing can surpass the stately grace of these beautiful pillars, whose proportions and adaptations to surrounding scenery are always perfect, and whose richness of decoration never offends.'¹ In the whole range of Indian art there is nothing, perhaps, equal to these Kanara pillars for good taste.