A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.73

c21.73

Perhaps the most mature example of Pallava architecture, however, is the Vaikuṇṭhaperumāl (Pl. VIIIb). Slightly larger than the Kailāsanātha, its principal parts—cloisters, portico, and sanctum—are no longer separate buildings but are amalgamated into a well-articulated structure. The sanctum is a square with sides of nearly 90 feet, and its front is carried forward 28 feet on the east to provide the portico. The whole is enclosed by a high outer wall which is decorated outside with simple and effective ornamental motifs, while inside it are the open ambulatory and the cloisters with a colonnade of lion pillars and sculptures inscribed with the leading events of Pallava history. The portico is a square with sides of 21½ feet, its ceiling supported on eight pillars. A vestibule leads from it to the rectangular cella over which rises the vimāna. This vimāna is square in plan with sides of 47 feet and reaches a height of 60 feet from the ground. It has four storeys, ‘each with a passage round its exterior, a cella in the centre, and a corridor encircling two of these for circumambulation’.