Ancient Indian Colonization in South-East Asia c11.20

c11.20

There is a general tendency among the writers on the subject to ascribe South India (Pallava) origin to temples whose roofs are composed of a number of gradually receding stories or stages. This is evidently due to the fact that, to judge from the extant examples, there is a sharp difference between the architectural style of temples in North and South India, the roof of the former being a curvilinear *śikhara* divided vertically by recesses, that of the latter consisting of a number of receding horizontal stages. This has given rise to the belief that these fundamental differences are characteristic of the architecture of Northern and Southern India. Such a belief, though very generally held, seems to be erroneous. For, though there are very few actual specimens extant today, it can be demonstrated clearly with the help of sculptural representation that roofs with gradually receding horizontal stages were very familiar in North India, at least as early as the Gupta period. As this point is of particular importance in any critical discussion of the origin of temple architecture in Greater India, I make no apology for treating this topic at some length.