Page:South-Indian Images of Gods and Goddesses.djvu/22

2 and the ninth centuries of the Christian era. The more ancient temples were probably made of wood and other such perishable material, as we find to this day in parts of Malabar. Perhaps the Pallavas were among the very first in Southern India to build temples of durable material. In fact one of the most famous of these Pallava kings, Mahēndravarman I, who reigned about the beginning of the seventh century A.D., was known by the title Chetthakāri, i.e., the maker of chaityas or temples.

The earliest Pallava monuments so far discovered are those of Mahābalipuram or the Seven Pagodas. They consist of solid rathas cut out of a single rock and of temples scooped out of the living boulder. The form of these rathas and temples served perhaps as models to the later temples in cut stone, such as those of the Shore Temple there, the Kailāsanātha and Vaikuntha-Perumāl temples at Conjeeveram, and other Pallava temples elsewhere.

The Pallavas were succeeded by the Chōla kings, who are justly entitled to be regarded as the greatest temple-builders of Southern India. About 90 per cent of the temples now found were erected in their time. They are generally dedicated either to Siva or Vishnu, and in their simplest form consist of a cell called the Garbha-griha,—the central shrine, surmounted by a spire or dome, with a hall in front, called Mukha-mandapa and a narrow passage or vestibule connecting the two, called the Ardha-mandapa, which is open on two sides to permit of the priestly worshippers circumambulating the central shrine. In the Mukha-mandapa or just outside it will be placed the image of the deity's chief vehicle, the Nandi-bull in Siva temples and the Garuda-bird in Vishnu temples. This is generally the limit up to which the non-Brahman classes are allowed to come. Round and outside of these are the Mahā-mandapa, the big hall, and other pavilions in which on special occasions processional images of the deity are placed and worshipped. Next after the Mahā-mandapa there will be two raised platforms, one behind the other, on one