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

292 THE HINDU RENAISSANCE
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or kalasa wreathed in foliate detail. This order
is
simply an elaboration of the columns of the
Gupta Period, with every face of the pillar richly
embellished with a veritable lace-work of figural
and foliate motifs. Some have discerned in this
afterglow of the Gupta Period a reflexion of
that sensuous love of nature, the perfumed
descriptions of the floral bowers in which is
enacted the love-poem ofSakuntala. The principal
doorway of this temple is typical in its
richness and iconography of the portals of the
Brahmanic temples at Osia. 15 The lintel is decorated
with representations of the planetary divinities
or navagraha, together with representations
of garudas and nagas. The jambs are covered
with different avatars ofVishnu and lesser members
ofthe Hindu pantheon. The river goddesses
which flanked the lintel of Gupta temples have
been moved to the base of the jambs. The other
Brahmanic temples at Osia, such as the shrines
of Hari-Hara, present only slight variations of
the same typically Indo-Aryan style. The same
could be said of the Jain sanctuary of Mahavira
that differs only in the character of the sikhara.
This tower with lesser turrets echoing its shape
corresponds more closely to the special type of
architecture seen at Khajuraho. 16
7. GUJARAT AND WESTERN INDIA
Of a special richness and delicacy are the ruined
Indo-Aryan temples of Gujarat. Although some
of these shrines and also those of Kathiawad
and Kach were begun in the tenth century, the
majority of the structures may be dated between
1025, the year of Mahmud of Ghazni's icono-
224. Osia, Surya temple