A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.115

c21.115

In the rest of the empire Vellore, Kumbakonam, Kāñchipuram, Tāḍpatri, and Śrīrangam are justly celebrated for their temples in the style of this period. The kalyāṇamaṇḍapa of the temple at Vellore is considered to be the most beautiful structure of its kind, and its gōpura is typical of the style of the century. The temple of Mārgasakheśvara at Virinchipuram (North Arcot district) is also remarkable for the exuberant treatment of its kalyāṇamaṇḍapa. The Ekāmranātha and the Varadarāja temples at Kāñchipuram contain pavilions of remarkable size, the pillars of which are notable even in this period for their ‘bizarre grouping of imaginative statuary’. Two gōpuras of the temple of Rāmeśvara at Tāḍpatri are remarkable for their rich and exquisite carvings in the whole of the perpendicular part usually left comparatively plain. ‘These carvings,’ says Ferguson, ‘are in better taste than anything else in this style.’ Lastly, the so-called ‘horse court’ or Śeshagirimaṇḍapa at Śrīrangam contains a ‘colonnade of furiously fighting steeds each rearing up to a height of nearly nine feet, the whole executed in a technique so emphatic as to be not like stone but hardened steel’ (Brown).