Eternal India Encyclopedia

Eternal India encyclopedia

ARCHITECTURE

standing on one foot, while all of creation, animals, humans and heavenly beings watch the descent of the Ganga. Another version is that it depicts Arjuna's penance to obtain a boon from Lord Shiva. The bas relief also has fables from the well- known Panchatantra sculptured on it, in life size, including the elephants. The central cleft, a natural feature of rock, is skilfully incorpo- rated into the design and subject matter of the sculpture. Secondary meanings that the Pallavas resembled the Descent and purified the world can also be read. "Seventh century Pallava sculpture is of a very high order; it differs chiefly from that of the Gupta period in the great slenderness and the freer movements of the forms, a more oval face and higher check-bones. The divine and human figures are infinitely gracious and in the representation of animals this school excels all others". - Dr. Anand Coomaraswamy. Another monument securely attributable to Rajasimha's reign is the Kailasanatha temple at Kanchipuram which is a fully developed southern temple. Once the capital of the Pallavas, Kanchipuram is the ancient city of a thousand temples. Throughout the year, various temple festivals are celebrated. It is one of the seven sacred towns of India. In January, April and May are car festivals, when the deities are taken out in elaborately carved and decorated wooden chariots pulled along by devotees. The beautifully deco- rated image of Lord Vishnu is taken out in May-, seated on the figure of Garuda - a mythological bird. During major festivals, colourfully dressed people go in proces- sion to the sounds of Vedic chants and traditional melodies played on the 'nadaswaram'. The oldest temple here is the Kailasanatha temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. The temple has a small gopuram and a shrine to the bull, Nandi. There are beautifully painted murals on the perimeter walls. Many have been damaged by the ravages of nature. Temples were also built by the Cholas, Chalukyas and the rulers of Vijayanagar when they ruled over Kanchipuram. The Vai- kunta Perumal temple dedicated to Vishnu was built by the Pallava emperor, Nandivarman II. It has a colonnade of iron pillars and beautifully painted murals. The most famous temple is the Ekambareshwara temple built by the Pallavas with subsequent additions by later dynasties. It is a huge temple with five enclosures, a thousand pillared hall and immense elaborately decorated gopurams that are over 59 m. high. Here Shiva is worshipped in the form of one of the elements — Earth (prithvi). The Varadaraja temple with 30 m. high gopurams is also another important temple. It has got a hundred pillared hall. There are some beautiful sculptures among which is a huge chain, carved . out of a single piece of stone. The Sri Kamakshi Amman temple, dedicated to the goddess Kamakshi has an imposing structure. The temple's annual car festi- val on the 9th lunar day in Feb-March attracts big crowds. The Vijayanagar empire, which had its capital at Hampi, reached the height of its power in the 16th Century. The most typical characteristic of Vijayanagar temple architecture is the kalyana mandapa or marriage hall where the images of the god and goddess were ceremonially united on festival days. The Vithala temple at Hampi is one of the finest examples of temple

Pattadakkal. This Western Chalukyan territory was the meeting place of northern and southern styles. This explains the similarity in the architectural styles of Alampur and Pattadakal. The nine temples here although dedicated to Shiva are named after Brahma. THE PALLAVAS Every phase of Pallava architecture and sculpture can be seen at Mamalapuram (Mahabalipuram), 35 miles south of Madras, where there are rock-cut cave temples, monoliths and structural buildings. The three major architectural styles are that of the time of Mahendravarman I (600-630), his son Narasimhavarman I

(630-670) who had the title of Malla from which the name Mamal- lapuram is derived and Rajasimha (Narasimhavarman II). Cave I (Varaha cave) contains two royal portraits, one of Simhavishnu (father of Mahendravarman I) seated on a throne flanked by his two queens) and another of Mahendravarman leading his two queens towards his father. Narasimhavarman I continued the tradition of rock-cut temples but they became more elaborate. He initiated the method of carving free-standing monolithic rathas (chariots), as they are called. The six monolithic rathas at Mamallapuram each with a distinctive shrine tower (vimana) are named after the Pan- davas of the Mahabharata. The origin of the idea of complete replicas of structural buildings is not known but these are the earliest surviving examples. The Arjunaratha demonstrates the Southern style of architecture with a superstructure which has stories that diminish in size as they ascend, forming a pyramidal roof. Each roof is decorated with a barrel-vault pavilion (Sala) and the whole is capped with an octagonal sikhara. This form is the basis for what is seen in Chola, Vijayanagar and Nayaka period monuments. Rajasimha (700-728 A.D.) who began constructing free-standing structural temples, built the Shore temple out of hard blackish leptinite. The Shore temple is a double shrine close to the sea. The main shrine faces east. The adjoining shrine faces west. The best known of the rock carvings is the immense 27 m long and 9 m. wide bas relief that is sculpted in detail on a huge whale- shaped rock. It depicts the story of the Descent of the river Ganga to the earth. It was after a thousand-year penance that Lord Shiva agreed to let the heavenly river flow through his tresses since its direct descent on earth would have meant a certain destruction of the earth. The river is represented by nagas (snake divinities) and their wives. There is the picture of the emaciated sage Bhagiratha