The Age of the Imperial Guptas c9.111

c9.111

Compared with this elaborate door-frame the one at Bhumra is much simpler though the ornamentation is of a much higher standard of artistic excellence.¹ The door-frame of the early Gupta temple at Nachna Kuthara is exactly of the same type. Unfortunately a part of the lintel is missing and therefore we cannot judge whether there was a figure in high relief in the centre of the lower part of the lintel or not. Here also we find five bands, two of which only are continued over the lintel:—
(1) a meandering creeper,
(2) a super-imposed row of sunken panels containing human or divine figures,
(3) a geometrical pattern consisting of diamond shaped ornaments formed by the crossing of parallel lines,
(4) a pilaster, and (5) a super-imposed row of half opened rosettes.