Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/401

 CHAP. IV. PATTADAKAL. 353 annexed wood- of the Kailas, as may be gathered from the cut (No. 2O4). 1 Antecedently to the discovery of their relative dates we could readily believe the southern temple to be the older of the two, but certainly not distant in date, and this has been fully confirmed by the results of more recent research. Though not the oldest, this is the most important as well as the largest temple of this style in the Kanarese districts. It is the only one now in use in Pattadakal ; the others, mostly of great age and interest, are used as dwellings or cattle - sheds. Four of the larger are all of the same style the jikharas being all square pyra- mids, divided into distinct storeys, and each storey ornamented with imitation cells, alternately oblong and square. Their ornamentation is coarser or more archaic than that of the later Chalukyan style, and the domical termination of the spires is less graceful. They are wanting, too, in that general elegance of form and detail which are so characteristic of the latter, but are not without a purpose-like boldness of form, expression of stability, and a certain amount of grandeur, though this is more readily observable in the larger temples in the south of India than in those of Pattadakal. If we compare it with the more modern temples, however, it will be seen how much the latter lost by the gradually growing steepness of outline and attenua- tion of details. The more modern forms are not without a certain degree of elegance which is wanting in the more ancient, but in all the higher characteristics of design, the older are by far the finest examples. The Virupaksha temple stands in an enclosure 224 ft. in length from east to west, and varying in width from 105 ft. in front with a large gateway on the east and a smaller one on the west (Woodcut No. 204). This court has been surrounded by small shrines or cells, some of which remain. The temple itself faces the east and has entrance porches also on the north and south sides. The hall or mandap measures 50 ft. 8 in. from north to south by 45 ft 10 in. from east to west, and its roof is supported by sixteen massive pillars, each of one block 204. Plan of Great Temple at Pattadakal. Scale 100 ft. to i in. 1 There are four photographs of this temple in the ' Architectural Antiquities of Dharvvar and Mysore,' plates 54-57 ; and one in ' Archaeological Survey of Western India,' vol. i. plate 38. VOL. I. Z