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

CEYLON
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AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA
architecture implies, it is characterized at once
by an almost overwhelming exuberance of
sculptural methods. The great moment of this
period is the reign of Jayavarman VII (1181-
1201), but significant monuments on a somewhat
reduced scale continued to be built well on
into the fourteenth century.
One of these later constructions is a great gem
of Khmer architecture. This is the sanctuary of
Banteai Srei, the ancient Isvarapura, which was
336. Banteai Srei, tower
founded by the teacher and relatives of King
Srindravarman in 1304. 21 The group consists of
three shrines dedicated to Siva, placed on a
basement platform. There are, in addition, two
other buildings generally identified as temple
libraries. This plan is essentially only a prolongation
of the arrangement of separate
towers placed in groups that we have seen
at Sambor and Lolei. The whole precinct is
surrounded by an enclosure with gopuras, a
concept that seems ultimately related to South
Indian architecture. The individual towers have
the usual cruciform ground plan and are
equipped with three false doorways repeating
the form of the actual entrance to the cella [336].
They have the steep pyramidal elevation topped
by a kalasa finial of earlier Khmer towers, but
here the profile is much steeper and elegantly
pointed. Small turrets at the corners of each
level serve to cover the transition of the
separate terraced storeys.
It is
the sculptural decoration of this monument
that gives it such a definite refinement and
elegance. Every wall-space of the base has its
niche with a divinity framed in elaborate scrolls
of foliate carving. The portals, following a
scheme going back to the earliest shrines at
Sambor, are crowned with lintels, and in addition
there is a massive tympanum framed in an
omega-shaped border terminating in upraised
naga hoods. Not only this, but the tympanum,
in reduced scale, is repeated at every successive
level of the superstructure, as though to provide
suitable entrances to the devalokas personified
in these storeys. These tympana are only
the final development of a Khmer form evolved
as early as the seventh century.
One of these pediments from the eastern
library building is particularly worthy of
analysis [337]. It represents a tableau that we
have already seen at Ellura: the giant Ravana
shaking Mount Kailasa. 22 Here, as in countless
other Khmer architectural reliefs, the carving
was evidently done after the sandstone blocks
of the fabric were in place. In comparison with
the Chalukya version of this theme at Ellura,
the conception is about as original and farremoved
from its precedent as, let us say, a