A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.57

c21.57

'Standing high on this plinth,' says Brown, 'is the temple proper, approached by flights of steps leading to a pillared porch on its western side, and it is here that its designers rose to the greatest heights. There is no pronounced departure from the conventional combination of the maṇḍapa and the vimāna, but the manner in which various architectural elements, all definite and sharply outlined, such as cornices, pilasters, niches and porticos, have been assembled in an orderly and artistic manner to form a unified whole, is masterly. Then over all rises the stately tower in three tiers, with its prominently projecting gable-front, and surmounted by a shapely cupola, reaching up to a total height of 95 ft. But this is not all. Around the wide space of the platform at the base of the vimāna five subsidiary shrines have been fashioned out of the rock, each an elegant reproduction to a reduced scale of the main theme, to which they serve as a refrain. The interior consists of a pillared hall, from which a vestibule leads to the cella. This hall is a well-proportioned compartment measuring 70 feet by 62 feet having sixteen square piers in groups of four in each quarter, an arrangement which produces a cruciform central aisle with an effect of great dignity.'¹