A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.107

c21.107

The most striking feature in this Deccani type of temple is the design of the *śikhara* which has a well-marked vertical band carried from the lower cornice right up to the finial at each of its angles. The space between these bands is filled in with rows of small replicas of the *śikhara* itself, each one supported on a pedestal of suitable size. This principle of using miniatures of the entire structure as decorations on its sides is applied in other parts of the temple also with generally very pleasing results. In the larger examples the sanctum is laid out on a diagonal arrangement; and the shaping of the walls also undergoes a marked elaboration by means of projections and recesses of the wall-surfaces—sometimes carried to excess. Horizontal mouldings, many of them with a knife-edged section named *kani*, break the vertical effect of the treatment of the wall-surface. The pillars were generally lathe-turned, had *kani* moulding, and were richly carved throughout, though sometimes the lower third was left simply as a plain square prism. Even the largest of these Deccani temples does not exceed 80 feet in length, but they are all very well proportioned, the unit furnishing the proportion of the various parts being the height of the monolithic pillar in the interior.