The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

138 ROMANO-INDIAN ART
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one time supported the hemispherical dome of
a stupa. The principal facade is faced with
blocks of the local kanjur stone (a variety of porous
sandstone). It is ornamented with pilasters
of a composite type, and between these pilasters
are reliefs of architectural monuments, including
a representation of a Classical pedimented
aedicule, a torana or Indian gateway, and a
chaitya arch. On the summit of the last is a
double-headed eagle, from which the shrine derives
its name. The use of the engaged order is,
of course, suggestive of Roman precedent. But
the capitals themselves are completely non-
Classical, and even debased in proportion.
The only building at Taxila with a plan remotely
approximating a Classical shrine is the
so-called Fire Temple at Jandial. The plan is
that of a peripteral temple in antis [77]. Originally,
there were four Ionic pillars between the
antae; behind this, a room corresponding to the
cella, and a second apartment corresponding to
the inner shrine of the Parthenon. The outer
circumference of the temple consisted of rubble
masonry piers spaced at regular intervals in a
manner suggesting the colonnade of a Greek
temple. 25 Actually, the plan corresponds much
more closely to the plans of the fire temples of
Iran in the Achaemenid and Parthian Periods.
That the sanctuary may have been dedicated to
Mazdaean worship is suggested by the absence
of any kind of imagery and by the presence at
the back of the shrine of a platform, perhaps
originally supporting a wooden fire-tower. The
Ionic columns of the portico are built with
drums in accordance with the Greek method
[78]. The capitals and bases approximate late
Greek provincial examples of the order and confirm
the dating of the temple in the time of Parthian
supremacy at Taxila (c . 50 B.C. to a.d. 65).
The principal contribution of Gandhara to
architecture was in the development of buildings
dedicated to the Buddhist religion. We may
take as an example the vihara at Takht-i-Bahi,
an isolated site not far from Peshawar, near the
supposed location of the capital of the Parthian
Gondophares [80]. The basis of the plan is a
series of connected courts open to the sky, surrounded
either by cells for the accommodation of
the monks or by niches to house the devotional
objects of the monastery [79]. Larger cham-
77. Jandial, Taxila, temple
78. Jandial, Taxila, temple, Ionic capital and base ~-^r*.