Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v3.c43.t1.338

v3.c43.t1.338

We now come to the grand temple itself, which is fifty-eight feet in height, and in the ancient form peculiar to the temples of Siva. The body of the edifice, in which is the sanctum of the god, and over which rises its pyramidal sikhara, is a square of only twenty-one feet; but the addition of the domed vestibule (mandap) and portico makes it forty-four by twenty-one. An outline of this by Ghasi, a native artist (who labours at Udaipur for the same daily pay as a tailor, carpenter, or other artisan), gives a tolerably good notion of its appearance, though none of its beauty. The whole is covered with mythological sculpture, without as well as within, emblematic of the ‘great god’ (Mahadeo), who is the giver, as well as the destroyer, of life. In a niche outside, to the south, he is armed against the Daityas (Titans), the munda-mala, or skull-chaplet, reaching to his knees, and in seven of his arms are offensive weapons. His cap is the frustrum of a cone, composed of snakes interlaced, with a fillet of skulls: the khopra is in his hand, and the victims are scattered around. On his right is one of the maids of slaughter (Jogini) drunk with blood, the cup still at her lip, and her countenance expressive of vacuity; while below, on the left, is a female personification of Death, mere skin and bone: a sickle (khurpi) in her right hand,¹ its knob a death’s head, completes this group of the attributes of destruction [707].