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

THE PERIOD OF THE HINDU DYNASTIES 307
at Mamallapuram, suggest the form of the
temple-towers or gopuras of the last phase of
Hindu architecture at Madura. As in the Shore
Temple, pillars rising from rampant leonine
forms are employed throughout.
9. THE DECCAN
Closely related to these Pallava shrines is one of
the ^greatest monuments of Dravidian art: the
Kailasanath temple at Ellura in the Deccan
[240]. This monument to Siva was a dedication
of Krishna I (757-83) of the Rashtrakuta
Dynasty. The Rashtrakutas were the successors
of the Chalukyas in central India and were at the
height of their power in the eighth century. This
great sanctuary, occupying an area roughly the
same as that of the Parthenon and one and a
half times as high, is not a structural temple, but
an enormous monolithic rock-carving in architectural
form.- 7
The entire precinct, including
the temple, its mandapas, a pillared shrine for
Siva's bull Xandi, as well as the monumental
this technique is that the temple is left enshadowed
at the bottom of a deep pit. At Ellura
the carvers sought to compensate for this defect
by placing their shrine on an enormously high
base.
The Kailasa temple is dedicated to Siva, who
is enshrined as a giant lingam in the innermost
sanctuary. As its name implies, the monument
is intended as an architectural replica of the
sacred Mount Kailasa, on the summit of which
is Siva's eternal home. Indeed, the profile of the
building, with its central spires somewhat above
the summits of the roofs of the mandapa, and
Xandi porch, seems to follow the actual contour
of the real Mount Kailasa in the Himalayas.
The dependence of the architectural form on
Pallava prototypes is especially evident in the
terraced spire that has for its ultimate model the
Dharmaraja rath at Mamallapuram. Characteristic
of this Dravidian style are the replicas or
refrains of the finial on the lower levels of the
terraced pyramid. Actually, the arrangement of
portico, are all
hewn directly out of the great
sanctuary, porches, and Xandi pavilion is distinctly
reminiscent of the Yirupaksha temple at
quarry of rock. Although we may marvel at the
amount of labour that went into such a gigantic
carving, it should be pointed out that there was
probably less expenditure of work in literally
quarrying the entire complex from the mountain-side
than would have been required for
transporting the cut stones necessary to build it.
Pattadakal, so that, by the same token, the
Kailasa temple is a lineal descendant of the
shrine at Kancipuram.
As has already been noted, the main elements
of the Kailasa temple are all placed on a podium
twenty-five feet high, so that they appear to
stand on an upper storey raised above the level
Described as briefly as
possible, the technical
method followed by the carvers of the temple of
Ellura was to cut three great trenches down into
of the courtyard. The essential plan of the Kailasa
temple proper is that of a cella preceded by a
spacious hall with pillared mandapas extending
the quarry of rock and carve the free-standing
as transepts to east and west [241].
In front of
buildings from the isolated block of stone remaining.
Masses of rock had to be left intact,
not only for the main sanctuary and its basement
storey, but also for the two free-standing stambhas
or columns and the lifesize carving of an
elephant on the floor of the surrounding courtyard.
Bridges connect the main temple with the
halls and subsidiary shrines cut in the surrounding
'walls' of the quarry. The disadvantage of
the porch on the main axis is a shrine for Siva's
bull Xandi. Two lesser portions radiating from
the main narthex give the temple a roughly
cruciform plan. Around the sanctum are carved
five lesser shrines, like chapels in an ambulatory.
The exterior decoration of all these structures
and of the Xandi porch preceding the main complex
consists of niches enclosing statues of deities
and engaged columns of the Dravidian order