The Colas c35.11

c35.11

Mataṅgeśvara in Kāñcī, and the temples of Tiruttaṇi and Bāhūr—all stone temples of the late Pallava period. The mouldings in the basement (*upapīṭha*⁷) the disposition of the niches and pilasters on the body of the temple, and the *vimāna* rising on a square sanctum (*garbhagṛha*) in diminishing tiers were more or less the same. The topmost members of the *vimāna*, viz., the *grīva*, *śikhara* and *stūpi* conformed to the plan of the *garbhagṛha*, generally square, but sometimes circular in section as in the case of the Vijayālaya-cōḷēśvara of Nārttāmalai which resembles the Tripurāntakeśvara, Mukteśvara and Mataṅgeśvara of Kāñcī. Some of these early Cōḷa temples have a number of subsidiary shrines round about and to understand the disposition of these shrines, we must again turn to Pallava shrines. The *garbhagṛha* of the Kailāsanātha (Rājasimheśvara) of Kāñcī is a composite structure, with a central cella facing east to which are attached smaller shrines built on to its walls on the three free sides and the four corners; all the subshrines contain images of Śiva. At Panamalai subshrines are attached to the middle of the three free sides, while in the Aivarkōyil at Koḍumbāḷūr they are found in the four corners of the main shrine; the integration of Kailāsanātha is reached by a combination of both the conceptions. In the early Cōḷa temples the subshrines are detached from the main sanctum, and arranged as separate shrines round it in the courtyard, facing the main shrine and its axis, dedicated each to a subsidiary deity (*parivāra-devatā*). These peristylar subshrines, each a miniature of the central sanctum, generally abut on the enclosing wall (*tirumadil*) which usually has a *gōpura* in front. The *gōpura*, however, is a relatively small structure calculated in no way to detract from the domination of the *vimāna*. The number of subshrines increased in later times with the size of the temple.