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

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290 THE HINDU RENAISSANCE
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towering complication of the head-dresses.
These dancers in the heaven of Indra are, according
to legend, creatures not made of gross
flesh but constituted rather of the air and the
movements that compose their heavenly dances
they are here as appropriate 'entertainers' in
the reconstructed heaven that is the fabric of the
sanctuary.
Although ostensibly only so many spots or
accents in the total decoration of the facade,
they have an irresistible individual attraction:
'With every movement of the eye of the beholder
a new perspective shows the images from a different
angle; to avoid being bewildered he has
to concentrate on each of them . . . and then give
his attention to the next.' 14 Each figure carved
almost in the complete round stands on its own
platform and is shaded by an individual canopy.
In addition to their separate fascination for the
eye, the figures perform the function of contributing
so many vertical accents in the ascent of
the sikhara. Individually these celestial maidens
possess a great vitality expressed in their tortuous
movements and the provocative warmth
and fullness of the modelling of their flesh. As
in some of the very earliest examples of Indian
sculpture, the roundness and softness of the
breasts and belly are emphasized by the contrasting
exaggerated straightness of the arms
and limbs.
6. RAJPUTANA
In the days of the great Brahmanic revival during
the eighth and ninth centuries the plains of
Rajputana must have flowered with temples.
Most of these temples were distinguished by
their pillared mandapas, and the fragments of
scores of such porches were appropriated by
.Moslem builders of the Qutb mosque at Delhi,
which in its four hundred and eighty separate
columns includes the material of nearly thirty
temples.
In spite of the ravages of time and the iconoclasm
of the
Islamic invaders, the number of
ancient temples still standing in Rajputana is so
great that it would be impossible even to mention
them all.
We may take as representative of
the best of Indo-Aryan architecture in northern
India the group of temples erected from the
eighth to the tenth century at Osia, near
Jodhpur. All these shrines, in what once must
have been a flourishing religious community,
now stand deserted and in ruins. The sanctuaries
include both Brahmanic and Jain dedications.
Most of the temples belong to the
pahca ayatana class, a designation meaning that
four extra shrines (making five in all) were originally
attached by cloisters to the main sanctuary.
Most of the temples at Osia, like the temples
at Khajuraho, are raised on plinths or podiums.
The sikharas follow most closely the early Orissan
type, as exemplified by the Parasuramesvara
temple at Bhuvanesvar. The mandapas, in
almost every case, take the form of an open
pillared hall. The jambs and lintels of the doorways
of the sanctuaries at Osia are ornamented
with a richness equalling the carving of the Sun
temple at Konaraka.
A typical example of the Indo-Aryan style in
Rajputana is the Surya temple at Osia [224].
The four lesser shrines surrounding the sanctuary
have disappeared and only the cella with its
open porch survives. The building presumably
dates from the tenth century. The cella and the
open mandapa are erected on a raised platform.
The colonnade of the mandapa is augmented by
two pillars rising from the ground level. The
spaces between the pillars on the porch were
originally filled with elaborately carved stone
screens like the pierced decoration to be found
in some of the Chalukya temples at Pattadakal.
The rather squat sikhara with its heavy rustication
and massive amalaka quoins is also reminiscent
of Pattadakal. The columns of the Osia
temples belong to the same order that is seen in