A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c21.89

c21.89

Under the Pāṇdyas the builders began to divert their attention from the central shrine to the outlying portions of the temple. They sought to emphasize the sanctity of the shrine by making the entrances to the enclosures containing it into vast towered gateways of imposing size and appearance, and thus the *gōpuras* came to form immense piles and provided a basis for a wealth of sculptural embellishments. Generally the two lowest storeys of the *gōpura* are vertical and built of solid stone masonry, a stable foundation for the high pyramidal superstructure of brick and plaster. These *gōpuras* are some of them firm and rigid in their contours with straight sloping sides while others have somewhat curved and concave outlines imparting to them an impressive upward sweep. In the latter class the sculpture is of a more florid character. The pillar also underwent a further evolution under the Pāndyas: the *idal* became more pronounced with a scalloped edge, the corbel was moulded into a pendant or drop, and the *palagai* increased in width. Pāndya architecture generally spent itself in embellishing existing temples by adding outer *mandapas*, additional sub-shrines and *gōpuras*, rather than in building entire temples. One of the early examples of the Pāndya *gōpura* is that in the second enclosure wall of the temple of Jambukeśvara on the island of Śrīrangam, a twelfth-century structure, still retaining many features of the Chola style. Later and more typical Pāndya *gōpuras* are the Sundara Pāndya *gōpura* also at Jambukeśvara and the eastern *gōpura* of the temple of Chidambaram, both mid-thirteenth century. In Pāndya art, in general, is seen an attempt to produce a more elegant effect by an increase of decorative detail which may be taken to mark the transition from the restrained maturity of Chola architecture to ‘the exquisite though extravagant productions of Vijayanagar’.