Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/165

 CHAP. IV. BAROLI. 135 to have been erected ; l but whether this is so or not, it is one of the finest examples of such detached halls known in the north. We miss here the octagonal dome of the Jains, which would have given elegance and relief to its ceiling, though the variety in the spacing of the columns has been attained by a different process. When the dome was first employed in Hindu archi- tecture, they seem to have at- tempted to gain sufficient relief to their otherwise monotonous arrangement of columns by break- ing up the external outline of the plan of the mandapa, and by ranging the aisles, as it were, diagonally across the building, instead of placing them parallel to the sides. Other two temples here, to the south of the preceding, are smaller but essentially of the same style, though more pointed in their form, and are consequently either more modern in date, or if of the same age which may doubtless be the case would bring the date of the whole group down to the loth century, which, after all, may be their true date. The larger of the two is known as the temple of Parvati, and in front of it, a little way from the great temple, were two pillars, one of which (still standing in 1873) is here represented 2 (Woodcut No. 338). They evidently supported one of those torans, or archways, which succeeded the gateways of the Buddhist topes, and form frequently a very pleasing adjunct to Hindu temples. From the architraves of certain of these, the god was swung at certain festivals. They are, however, frail edifices at best, and easily overthrown, wherever the bigotry of the Moslims came into play. 338. Pillar at Baroli. (From a Plate in Tod's ' Annals of Rajasthan.') 1 Tod's 'Annals of Rajasthan,' vol. ii. p. 712.^ For the legend of Raja Huna and Pingala Rani, see vol. ii. p. 215. Indian Antiquary,' 2 For a photograph of this and of the two neighbouring temples, see ' Archi- tecture and Scenery in Gujarat and Rajputana,' plate 22.