The Age of the Imperial Guptas c8.74

c8.74

There are a number of temples, also belonging to the Gupta period, which are generally taken to represent the type of temples of this period, because they were the earliest to be discovered. Such are the small temples of Bodh-Gaya, in the Gaya district, Tigowa, in the Jubbulpur district, and Sanchi, in the Bhopal State. These temples consist of a square sanctum with a small porch or verandah in front of it. The temple at Tigowa is probably earlier in date than the Gupta period proper, because the pillars and pilasters of the verandah bear Indo-Persepolitan capitals. The size of the small temples at Sanchi and Bodh-Gaya prove that they were auxiliary temples and not principal shrines. But because they were the earliest known temples of the Gupta period, they came to be called the representative type of temples of the Gupta period. Recent discoveries have proved that the Gupta temple at Bodh-Gaya, to the right of the passage as one gets out of the doorway of the Great Temple, is perhaps the same as that built by the Ceylonese. The Gupta temples at Sanchi and Bodh-Gaya are Buddhist temples or shrines, the type of which had just lost its originality, because at this stage both Buddhist and Jain temples were beginning to be unified with the Hindu or Brahmanical temple type.