A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.49

c21.49

The vastly improved design and execution of the Virūpāksha temple, built by one of Vikramāditya II's queens, was most likely due to workmen brought from Kāñchipuram, and to their direct imitation of the Kailāsanātha temple which had come into existence in the Pallava capital some decades earlier. ‘There is a bold beauty,’ says Brown, ‘in the appearance of the Virūpāksha temple as a whole, which is best seen in the exterior. It is a comprehensive scheme as it consists not only of the central structure, but of a detached nandi pavilion in front, and it is contained within a walled enclosure entered by an appropriate gateway.’ It measures 120 feet from the front of the porch to the back of the shrine, and the studied grouping of its parts produces a very pleasant total effect. The heaviness of the stonework is relieved by an increase in the amount and quality of the sculpture. The main shrine, distinct from the maṇḍapa, has a pradakshiṇa path. The pillared maṇḍapa has thick walls with perforated stone windows. The square śikhara rises in clearly defined storeys each of considerable elevation. The external wall surface is divided by pilasters into well spaced ornamental niches filled alternately with windows and sculptures. The sculptures include representations of Śiva, nāgas and nāginis, and scenes from the Rāmāyaṇa. To cite Brown once more: ‘The sculpture flows into the architecture in a continuous yet disciplined stream. . . . The Virūpāksha temple is one of those rare buildings of the past in which the spirit still lingers of the men who conceived it and wrought it with their hands.’ The neighbouring Sangameśvara temple, built some years earlier, is very much in the same style but has an open maṇḍapa.