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

THE GUPTA PERIOD 22]
156. Aihole, Durga temple
temple [156]. It is an example of a modified
157. Aihole, Durga temple
structural chaitya-hall with the familiar basilican
plan of nave, aisles, and apse [157]. A flat
roof with stone slabs over the nave replaces the
barrel vaults. In place of the ambulatory of the
rock-cut chaityas, it has a pteroma running
round the exterior of the cella. The plain and
very massive bracket capitals of this arcade are
a type that reappears with variations in all later
periods of Indian architecture.
These capitals
are in a sense a severe or rustic version of those
seen in Cave XIX at Ajanta. Another and even
more interesting new element is the little spire
or sikhara rising above the apsidal end of the
structure. The sikhara, which some writers see
as a specifically North Indian development,
becomes more and more prominent in the
architecture of the Gupta and later periods. The
origins of the sikhara have been one of the great
points of dispute in Indian archaeology. Some
see in it a development from the stupa, or a
translation into stone of a wooden processional
car. Others have suggested an adaptation from
primitive beehive huts or a figuration of the
mukuta, the towering head-dress of Vishnu.
Coomaraswamy's proposal that the sikhara
tower was developed by the piling up of
successive storeys, as suggested by the representation
of the crowning amalaka at each level
or roof, is perhaps the best solution. 2