Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/422

 37 DRAVIDIAN STYLE. BOOK III. the floor, it will be easily understood how little effect such a building really produces. 1 They are, however, each of a single block of granite, and all carved more or less elaborately. A much finer portico stretches across the third court of the Jambuke^vara temple from gopuram to gopuram ; the pillars in it are much more widely spaced, and the central aisle is double that of those on the sides, and crosses the portico in the centre, making a transept ; its height, too, is double that of the side aisles. It is a pleasing and graceful architectural design ; the other is only an evidence of misapplied labour. The Seshagiri-rao Mantapam (T), to the south of the preceding, is the most elaborately carved hall in the temple. It is supported by pillars with rearing horses and other figures in front, similar to those in the Madura temple, and is probably of about the same age or the middle of the i/th century. The Gopuram (B), on the east side of this court is 146^ feet in height, and is one of the finest in the temple. The three outer enclosures have nothing very remarkable in them, being generally occupied by the Brahmans and persons connected with the temple. Each, however, has, or was intended to have, four gopurams, one on each face, the superstructures are of brick, and some of these are ornamented in plaster of considerable magnificence. The outer enclosure is, practically, a bazaar, filled with shops, where pilgrims are lodged, and fed, and fleeced. The wall that encloses it measures 2,521 ft. by 2,865 ft, 2 and, had its gopurams been finished, they would have surpassed all others in the south to the same extent as these dimensions exceed those of any other known temple. The unfinished southern gopuram, leading to the river and Trichinopoly, measures 130 ft. in width by 100 ft. in depth; the opening through it measures 21 ft. 6 in., and twice that in height. The four jambs or gateposts are each of a single slab of granite, more than 40 ft. in height, and the rooftng-slabs throughout measure from 23 ft. to 24 ft. Had the ordinary brick pyramid of the usual proportion been added to this, the whole would have risen to a height of nearly 300 ft Even as it is, it is one of the most imposing masses in southern India, and probably perhaps because it never was 1 A plan and section of the Thousand - pillared mantapam and six plates of pillars are given in the 'Journal of Indian Art and Industry,' vol. viii. (1899), plates 89-95, and the same with two others, in ' India: Photographs,' etc. ut supra, plates 54-62. 2 The innermost court, enclosing the temple, measures 240 ft. from north to south by 181 ft. from east to west ; the second 426 ft. by 295 ft. ; the third 767 ft. by 503 ft. ; the fourth 1,235 ft. by 849 ft. ; the fifth which, with the remaining two, is occupied by houses, measures 1,653 ft. by 1,270; the sixth 2,108 ft. by i, 846ft.; and the seventh is 2,521 ft. over all at the south end and about 2,485 at the north, by 2,865 ft- in length. ' Madras Manual of Administration,' vol. iii. p. 833 ; and Major Cole's plan.