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

THE GUPTA PERIOD 227
[163]. A feature found in almost all temple
entrances is the projecting lintel-cornice. It
overhangs the elaborate frame of the doorway
proper. The main motif here consists of richly
decorated pilasters, alternately square, octagonal,
and sixteen-sided in section, supporting
an architrave in the shape of an elongated vesara
or chaitya roof ornamented with chaitya dormers.
Within this framework are enclosed
narrow vertical bands of decoration with
representations of mithunas or auspicious
couples ; in the centre of the over-door slab is a
plaque of Vishnu on the great naga. Around the
frame of the doorway itself are panels with
crisply carved foliate details. To right and left
at the top and outside the main zone of the
frame are reliefs of the river goddesses of the
Ganges and Jumna. This is a motif that occurs
repeatedly in this position in the buildings of
Gupta times. At the bases of the overlapping
frames of the door are carvings of dvarapalas or
door guardians and female divinities. The richness
of this sculptured portal is, like the reliefs
of the false windows, set off by the plain surfaces
of the ashlar masonry.
A unique and important building of the
Gupta Period is the brick temple at Bhitargaon
near Cawnpore. The structure, which depends
for its effect on flat wall decoration, is so ruinous
that its arrangements can be seen better in an
architectural drawing than in a photograph
[164]. It dates from the fifth century, and is one
of the few surviving examples of Indian architecture
in brick. Originally a Brahmanical
dedication, it was intended as a sanctuary for
images. The brick tower, raised on a high plinth,
is thirty-six feet square, and contains a cella
originally crowned by a hull-shaped roof of the
chaitya type that we shall see in the Pallava
examples at Mamallapuram and Gwalior. The
blind chaitya arches in the horizontal courses
enframe heads of divine beings, the first
appearance of the gavaksha,
an architectural
motif that recurs in Pallava architecture and in
the pre-Khmer buildings of Indo-China. If
only in its shape, the temple seems to bear some
relation to the original tower sanctuary at Bodh
Gaya, and it furnishes a remarkably close prototype
for many later shrines in Java and Indo-
China. The panels of carved terracotta from
the exterior revetment are among the most
beautiful examples of Indian work in this ancient
medium. Like the decorative stone panels of
the Gupta period, these reliefs are characterized
by their extreme beauty of finish, softness of
form, and crispness of detailed definition.
164. Bhitargaon, brick temple
joined to a small vestibule by a barrel vault.
Domical brick vaults cover the sanctuary and
porch. On the exterior we see a structure with
doubly recessed corners ornamented by double
cornices enclosing a recessed frieze of carved
brick. The superstructure, rising in diminishing
stages with a decoration of chaitya arches, was
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