The Monolithic Vimanas-Rathas
The monolithic vimana shrines cut out entirely from live rock are the most outstanding contribution of rock architecture by Pallava Narasimhavarman Mamalla (630-668). These are in fact large sculptures of architectural models carved out of sectioned masses of standing rocks, or out of entire boulders of the intractable granite gneiss rocks of Mahabalipuram. The germ of the idea of cutting out an entire temple form lies in the carve-out stupas inside the rock-cut chaitya halls of western India. The idea was further elaborated by the Buddhists in the large hypaethral stupa forms at Sankaram (Visakhapatnam, district, Andhra Pradesh). An early, if imperfect, monolithic shrine form is found in the Tawa cave at Udaigiri (Vidisha district, Madhya Pradesh). It is more or less a circular monolithic temple cut out of an isolated mass of sandstone rock and carved into a hemisphere mounted on a base and capped by a flat stone in the form of a tawa (griddle) which, according to the inscription on it, was fashioned by a minister of Chandragupta.
What is more inersting is the fact that the Pallavas translated into the hard imperishable stone monoliths the various forms of structural vimana temples of brick and timber that were prevalent at the commencement of the seventh century. These stone copies have survived these thirteen centuries, while their brick-and-timber originals and their contemporary and later counterparts of the same fabric have totally perished. Thus they stand out as the earliest examples of the beginnings of vimana architecture in the south, and exhibit the varieties of vimanas that existed, or were evolved at that time. The variety in form, namely, plan and rise, exemplified by these monoliths, locally resulting in the familiar temple complex of south India. These additions were sometimes coeval with the main unit. In cases. Like the Brihadisvara at Thanajavur, the entire temple complex was planned and designed at the same time and executed amost simultaneously. More often, however, it is the result of gradual additins during various periods, thus successively enlarging the originally lay-out and resulting in such larger temple complexes, or temple cities, as those at Chidabaram, Tiruvannamalai, Madurai and Srirangam.
The temple cities, so called, such as Srirangam, which is the larges of the lot, accommodate the residential houses of people connected with the temple inside of the outer circuits. In srirangam, for example, where the primary temple nucleus of Ranganatha (recumbentVishnu) is surrounded by seven concentric prakaras or enclosure walls, the inner four walls invest the various subsidiary shrines and festival mandapas while the outer three walls have residential houses and mansions ranged along their inside faces, which are also called malikai (malika). These along with other housed and streets outside the outermost seventh prakara, constitute a modern municipal town.
As in all three-dimensional constructions where the plan and elevation aspects count, it is the diverse nature of the plan, and the degree of rise, involving the elaboration of the number of talas or storeys-the talachchanda, as it is called-that result in the great variety of southern vimanas leading to their differentitation and classification into categories. The four-sided square or oblong plans, and the curvilinear-circular, elliptical and apsidal plans-become familiar even in the earlier Buddhist and non-Buddhist temples. But the hexagonal or octagonal plan that is found introduced in the make-up of the southern vimana would be rather uncommon.
In the matter of rise the simple or ekatala vimana consist essentially of six vertical components, which, from base to apex, would be (1) the adhishthana, or basement, (2) the pada, or pillar, or the bhitti, or wall, according as the structure stands on either or both of these supports enclosing the sanctum, (3) the prastara or architrave, with the prominent cornice, or kapota, (4) the griva or clerestory over sanctum terrace and entablature, (5)the sikhara or ultimate roof coveing the top of the clerestory or griva, and (6) the stupi or finial crowning the top of the sikhara. Such a simple structure, or alpa vimana, is said to be ekatala, or single-storeyed and is shadanga or shadvarga, i.e. in six parts. The addition of another tala to its body part, or harmya, and architrave or prastara of smaller dimensions than the groundfloor and the griva sikhara-stupi components above, would make the vimana a dvitala one, or two-storeyed, with eight angas, the additions being the harmya nad prastara of the second tala. Such ashtanga vimanas were more common in the earlier stages. The number of storeys could be increased to three or four (tritala, chatushtala, etc.), in which case they were called jati vimanas. The larger vimanas with panchatala and more storeys reaching up to sixteen are mentioned in the Slipa text as mukhya vimanas. A case in point is the great Brihadisvara vimanas of Thanjavur, which rises to a height of over 60 meters.
The most characteristic and general feature of the southern vimana is the presence of a string of miniature vimana-like shrines on top of each storey, above the prastara set on its periphery, and surrounding the body, or harmya, of the next tala. Such a string is called the hara. While a hara is not prescribed for the ekatala ALPA vimanas of the simple type, the jati and mukhya vimanas are provided with such haras. In the earlier examples dating up to about AD 700, the hara is found on top of all the talas of the multstoreyed vimana, including the topmost tala where it surrounds the griva. In later cases the hara on thetopmost tala is absent. Its place is taken by the vahanas or vehicles, or lanchanas, that is, congnizant symbols appropriate to the principal deity enshrined in the sanctum of the aditala. They are Nandis or bhutas in Siva temples, lions in Devi, Vishnu or jain temples, garuda in Vishnu temples, and so on. This became an invariable feature of the southern temples from this period onwards. Thus the creedal or denominational character and the type of the consecreation of a temple can be recognized even from a distance from the nature of the vahanas, or lanchanas placed on the topmost tala.
According to the plan-four -sided, polygonal or curvilinear-the southern vimanas are classified in the southern Silpa and Agama text as nagara, Dravida and Vesara. That which is four-sided, square or oblong, from the base to the finial, or has a four-sided griva and sikhara, is classify as Nagara. That which is hexagonal or octagonal from the base to the finial, or has a hexagonal or octagonal griva and sikhara, is termed Dravida. The one which is circular, ellipsoidal or apsidal from base to top, or has such a plan in its griva and sikhara, is Vesara. While generally the uniform square or oblong plan is met with making up a pure form of Nagara, in many cases the griva and sikhara may assume the octagonal, or circular, or apsidal plan over a square body constituted by the aditala, or the series of talas in simple or multi-storeyed examples. This would make such vimanas, Dravida or Vesara of the mixed variety. Likewise, the oblong body may carry an elliptical griva and sikhara, which would make the vimana Vesara again. Thus, more than the shape of the basal parts or body, it is the plan of the griva sikhara components that really matters in this type of classification.
The squar, circular, hexagonal or octagonal structure which has a sikhara that is domical and ends up in a single finial, or stupi, is called kuta vimana with kuta sikhara. The oblong and ellipsoidal body structures with a wagon-top, vault-like or inverted boat-like roof, or sikhara with a row of stupis on top along the ridge, are known as sala vimana, or koshtha, or sabha forms. The chapa, or apsidal structure which has an apsidal roof and a series of finials along the horizontal part is generally called the hastriprishtha, or gajaprishtha, since it resembles the hind view of a standing elephant. It comes in the category of panjaras or nidas.
The hara, or string of diminutive shrines on top of the talas of multi-storeyed vimanas, is composed of these three classes of shrine forms-the miniature kuta, sala (or koshtha), and panjara (or nida). These are placed at the corners at the corners and along the sides on the top edges of the tala, and are interconnected by lengths of cloister-like or parapet-like parts of lesser height than the kuta, kosthaand panjara elements, called the harantara. These harantara cloister lengths have lateral bay window-like projections, with a lower rectangular component or window proper, projected from the wall of the cloister, and an arched dormer, the upper component, projected from the coping roof of the harantara cloister. These are called kshudranasikas, since they are smaller than similar projections from the sides of the main griva sikhara part of the vimana which are the maha nasikas and originally functioned as ventilators. It will be seen that the hara in most of the Mamalla-style cave-temples is a string of oblong salas alone, and the kutas at the extreme of each side, coinciding with the corners and hence called karnakutas, are to be found for the first time in the Pancha Pandava cave-temple. While the salas along the lengths of each side and the karnakutas at the corners are found in most of the monolithic vimanas, the nida or panjara as the third element of the hara makes its appearance only in two cases, namely, over the first tala of the Dharmaraja ratha and the second tala of the Nakula-Sahadeva ratha completed towards the close of the seventh century. Though this is not repeated in the alpa vimanas with one, two or three talas of the structural phase, both of the Chalukyas and the Pallavas, the nida appears as an invariable constituent of the larger jati and mukhya vimanas from the eighth century onwards.
The hara may stand apart from the central harmya of the tala that it surrounds, leaving a narrow circumambulatory passage in between as in the Dharmaraja ratha where all the talas are intended to be functional, each with a cella. Such a hara is said to be anarpita. This scheme of a ring of miniature shrine motifs round the central body of each storey would be after a similar lay-out plan at ground level, of a central shrine surrounded by subsidiary or parivara shrines and would denote that it is schematically carried up at every storey level. This scheme of anarpita hara was possible in the case of vimanas where the cella was sandhara, or enclosed by a double wall, with circumambulatory interspace between the two walls and with the inner wall rising to a greater height to from the second tala harmya, while the outer wall rose to the height to from the second tala harmya, while the outer wall rose to the height of the aditala alone carrying over its prastara and hara. By further extension of this principle, the number of concentric walls round the aditala sanctum could be three, resulting in a three-storeyed vimana, the outermost wall rising to the hight of the aditala, the middle one to the height of the third tala, with horizontal separations at each tala height forming a system of three superposed garbha-grihas arranged one over the other, with deities inside them.
Though a few such vimanas are to be found built from the Pallava times onwards, a universal extension of the scheme in all cases of vimanas of the mukhya class would have resulted in ponderous, squat edifices of uncouth proportion of base and height, the former much larger in area as compared to the height. The solution was to design massive wals round the aditala sanctum which could rise to heights and bear the load and make the upper talas schematic or non-functional storeys with the haras coalescing with the tala harmya wall, thus eliminating the intervening circumambulatory space. Such a hara was called arpita, and the vimana with such a single wall round the cella in its aditala was known as nirandhara. All this was actuated by the desire to construct vimanas of impressive loftiness on comparatively smaller base areas.
The quadrature or the sides of the aditala in the case of four-sided, polygonal, circular or apsidal structures, could be broken by offset projections or bays at intervals, starting from the lowermost part of the adhishthana. This scheme could be carried up to the talas above also, resulting in a scheme of bays at the corners and along the sides, with intervening recesse. The projected bays are denoted as the ratha projections in the northern-style temples and are described as tri ratha, pancha ratha, sapta ratha, etc. according as the offset bays on each side of the square are three, five or seven. The nomenclature is not applied to these parts in the southern vimanas. The bays here are called bhadras. They are cantoned by pilasters at their outer corners. On their inner angles with the adjacent walls, and over the prastara region, likewise offset, they carry the members of the hara-kuta, sala or panjara, as the case may be. The corner ones, equal-sided and square carry the kutas of the hara which invariably occupy the corners and are aptly called karnakuta. The bays on each face of the vimana coming between the corner ones are wider when they carry the salas of the hara over their prastara. In between these two, the third type of projections would be the narowes since they carry the panjara or nidha element of the hara over their prastara. These occur only in the lager jati and mukhya vimanas. These bays, particularly the wider ones with the sala on top, have niches sunk into them between the cantoning pilasters over the level of the adhishthana and below the kapota of the prastara. These are occupied by figure sculptures and are called devakoshthas. The intervening recesses between the bays represent the wall proper of the tala and are generally without sculpture in the earlier examples. They have only the pilasters, but some later ones have sculpture panels too, even shallow niches, or decorative type of pilaster motifs.
The pillars and pilasters conform more or less to their wooden originals with moulded ‘capitals’, or tops, which comprise the ‘order’ as it is termed in architectural parlance. The shaft has a base or pedestal, the omna, and has onits top a band of lotus petals with a scheme of loops of garlands hanging down. This part called malasthana and padma bandha marks the top end of the shaft and the beginning of the capita which consist of moulded parts, a pitcher, lasuna or kalasa, placed over the padma bandha, a saucer-shaped part called tadi, a flattened, bulbous or cushion-shaped member over it called the kumbha carrying an inverted platter-shaped part, and a doucine moulding, called the pali (or padma when it is shaped to simulate an inverted lotus blossom with petals) which realy forms the underside of a plank-like abacus-the phalaka. The phalaka, large, thick and square in ealier forms, became polygonal or circular and thinner an smaller in later temple. It supports the corbel-bracket or block, potika, which carries the beam, or uttira. The oma, or pillar base, is often shaped or transformed into a figue sculpture of an animal, real or mythical, or of a celestial being. Thus there are the squatting or rearing uyalas (mythical lion-like forms with transformed faces), elephants, nagas, nagadevas, bhutas, etc. The pillar shaft, as also the capital components, except the phalaka (which remains always square in earlier forms), May, instead of being four-sided or square, have six-eight, sixteen or more sides, or be circular in section. The potikas assume various shapes, like the taranga potikas of the Pallava cave-temples or the simple beveled ones in others. They later develop a central projecting tenon, or double volute, or assume the shape of a projecting curved arm terminated by a pendentive lotus bud, the pushpa potikas of the temples of the fifteenth century and later. These shapes indicate regional developments and also chronological evolution.
Another important architectural feature is the torana which is essentially an arched festoon (occasionally straight as in the toranas of Sanchi), mounted over two columns and marking a sacred or ceremonial entrance. Such free-standing torana entrances or stambha toranas are stated to have preceded the gopura entrances of ancient palaces. But while the entrance torana has been retained in the northern monuments, as at Sanchi and Bhubaneswar, it is the gopura entrance that has prevailed in the south and forms the most characteristic and invariable part of the temple complex. The torana idea is, however, not lost; the motifs are applied to many niches and entrances on the body of the vimana or the gopura and are known as bhitti toranas. Their supporting columns are of the same type as the pillars or pilasters with the capital components. From the mouths of opposed makaras perched on top of the phalaka or abacus re sprung the arched festoons of flowers and foliage, or friezes of animals, ganas and other forms. Such toranas are accordingly called patra toranas, chitra toranas, uidyadhara toranas, etc. These are found to frame the entrances of some cave-temples, the fronts of the niches, or devakoshthas, on the walls of the vimana, and the fronts of the nasikas of various orders and sizes-the mahanasika, the sukanasika, the kshudra-nasika, and the alpanasika. The gable-window like arched kudu ornaments on the kapota, of the prastara are fronte by toranas bereft of the supporting columns. The adhishthana, or pedestal, is also variable. In its simplest and most primary form it would consist of an offset bottom course, the upana,a taller neck-like recessed vertical course, the kantha, and a projecting platform, the prati or pattika. Such a one is called a mancha. A slight elaboration would be the insertion of a torus moulding called the kumuda which is three-faceted (tripatta), or rounded (vritta), and placed above the kantha an below the pattika, having another plain mouldings, less offset than the upana but taller and coming over it, called the jagati. A third varia would be the one with the addition of a flexed kapota or cornice below the pattika region. A jagati or kumuda may also be placed over a series of lotus petals shown as spread over the upana. These in earlier periods indicate regional forms and show elaboration in later forms.
Different combinations for adhishthana forms, the number of talas in the talachchanda, variations of the hara components between the karnakutas, their alternate or opposite position in the successive talas, their number and other features gave rise to different types of vimanas as classified in detail on the Silpa ans Agama texts and as found among thousands of temples in the south.
While the unitary type of the southern temple in its simplest form consisted merely of the vimana proper enclosing the garbha-griha, with a porch-like antarala or adha-mandapa, with the growth of the Agama and rituals, elaboration set in. Mandapas, such as the maha-mandapa, mukha-mandapas, agra-mandapas etc. were added axially and soon peripherally also like the utsava sthapana and the sabha-mandapas. The mandapas. The mandapas of the southern temples are al flat-roofed, however long or large they may be. Occasionaly one finds them sloppy-roofed if the local climatic conditions so demand as, for instance, on the west coast and the extreme tip of the peninsula. This is in sharp contrast to what obtains in the northern prasada temples whether of Gujarat, Orissa or central India. There one invariably finds pyramidally rising or tiered superstructures terminating in a final over the roofs of the mandapa in the axial or transverse line of the main prasada, the superstructures being of the ghantasamavarana type, or its simplified pitha-peda type. Though this scheme gives a distinct sky-line of successively ascending finals from the top of the foremost or outermost mandapa to that of the main sikhara of the prasada, it does make a rather heavy cluster of towers and necessitates also the main sikhara, superstructure over the prasada sanctum, to be relatively much higher than that of the mandapas. The flat roof of the mandapas, which are mere adjuncts to the main vimana of the southern temple, allows always the vimana which is the most important and dominating entity to stand clear against the sky-line.
The mandapas, very rarely astylar inside, are mostly supported on pillars and are closedor open on the sides. When closed they have a series of pilasters against the inner faces of the walls. On their outer faces the external scheme obtaining in the main vimana is followed. The pillars are mostly of the simple type, with the top and bottom sections square on plan and with the intervening section octagonal or polygonal, as in the case of the southern rock-cut cave-temples which, on that account, are popularly called mandapa-temples. The names Kotikal mandapam, Orukal mandapam, Idaichi mandapa, etc. indicate this. Additional square sections are also interposed in the middle region in the case of all pillars. Such simple mandapa pillars do not have differentiated capital mouldings, but bear the potika or corbel block directly over the top square section. They may occasionally have the full capitals of the order or, as in the case of the cave-temples of the Decan, they may be of the kumbha-valli type or have the so-called cushion capitals mentioned earlier. In later mandapa of the Chalukyan series, the pillars above thir square base are rendered into a series of curved and rounded shapes by being turned on a lathe. In later mandapas of the Pallava-Pandya series, the pillars have attached portrait statues, animal figures or a number of columnettes called ani-yotti-k-kal.
Though the rudimens of the plan of the mandapa are to be seen in the rock-cut caves and in the remains from Nagarjunkonda, their patterns became more distinct in the stone-and-brick temples of the seventh century onwards. In the Chalukya-Rashtrakuta series in the Deccan and in those that took after them and succeeded them, the mandapa is of two patterns. In the first case it is divided into a central nave with a raised roof over taller pillars, or with clerestory, and two lateral aisles with lower roofs. In the second pattern the mandapa is essentially square, being elaborated all round concentrically by the addition of peripheral rings of the same short, squat pillars as the central ones. With four central pillars standing on the corners of a central square and twelve peripheral pillars or pilasters set up at equal distances, in axial transverse and diagonal alignment with the central ones, a system of eight bays surrounding the central bay (making in all nine bays) would result in the mandapa becoming a navaranga. The addition of twenty more pillars as a still outer ring in alignment with the inner ones and at the corners would correspondingly increase the number of bays to twenty-five and make the mandapa a larger square. The Pallava-Pandya series of temples, and what followed them in material, technique and tradition in the succeeding periods in the farther south, elaborated the shape from the square to the oblong by emphasizing linear rows of taller pillars with wider spans. All this resulted in such multi-pillared mandapas as the hundred- or thousand-pillared halls.
Till about the commencement of the eleventh century, the gopuras, or storeyed gatewaus, piercing the protective prakara, or enclosure wall, characteristic of the southern temples, were built comparatively smaller than the vimana. They are essentially oblong on plan, transversely linear, with the entrance running through at the middle, and, with a single simple or storeyed superstructure, terminated by a sala sikhara with a row of stupis. The talachchanda, or system of storeys, with hara components at each level, is much akin to that of the oblong or ayatasra vimana. In the earlier series of temples mostly the alpa and jati vimanas prevailed. Ther larger temples with jati vimanas included in their lay-out scheme the gopuradvara, or main gateway entrance, which was of considerably smaller proportions and height than the main vimana that always dominated the entire composition. These small and middle size gopuras were single-or two-or three- storeyed, called dvarasobha, dvarasala, dvaragopura, etc. From the close of the tenth century onwards when larger vimanas came to be constructed, the gateway came to assume correspondingly larger proportions, becoming many-storeyed and called mahadvara, or gopura, or rajagopuram. The gatewaus also tended to increase in height and size, ultimately to become the dominating structures of the temple complex. This could be seen particularly in the case of those ancient temples where the main vimana nucleus that was ancient was kept intact and the prakara and gopura adjuncts came to be successively added round it in later times as in the Chidambaram, Tiruvannamalai, Madurai and Srirangam temple complexes. There was thus a shift in emphasis from the main vimana in the gopura, with the result that hile in the earlier temple complexes, as in the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur, the sky-line descends from the stupi of the main vimana to the outer of the two front gopura built almost in the same period as the main vimana, it ascends from the centre to the outermost gopura in the four temple complexes mentioned above.
What is more inersting is the fact that the Pallavas translated into the hard imperishable stone monoliths the various forms of structural vimana temples of brick and timber that were prevalent at the commencement of the seventh century. These stone copies have survived these thirteen centuries, while their brick-and-timber originals and their contemporary and later counterparts of the same fabric have totally perished. Thus they stand out as the earliest examples of the beginnings of vimana architecture in the south, and exhibit the varieties of vimanas that existed, or were evolved at that time. The variety in form, namely, plan and rise, exemplified by these monoliths, locally resulting in the familiar temple complex of south India. These additions were sometimes coeval with the main unit. In cases. Like the Brihadisvara at Thanajavur, the entire temple complex was planned and designed at the same time and executed amost simultaneously. More often, however, it is the result of gradual additins during various periods, thus successively enlarging the originally lay-out and resulting in such larger temple complexes, or temple cities, as those at Chidabaram, Tiruvannamalai, Madurai and Srirangam.
The temple cities, so called, such as Srirangam, which is the larges of the lot, accommodate the residential houses of people connected with the temple inside of the outer circuits. In srirangam, for example, where the primary temple nucleus of Ranganatha (recumbentVishnu) is surrounded by seven concentric prakaras or enclosure walls, the inner four walls invest the various subsidiary shrines and festival mandapas while the outer three walls have residential houses and mansions ranged along their inside faces, which are also called malikai (malika). These along with other housed and streets outside the outermost seventh prakara, constitute a modern municipal town.
As in all three-dimensional constructions where the plan and elevation aspects count, it is the diverse nature of the plan, and the degree of rise, involving the elaboration of the number of talas or storeys-the talachchanda, as it is called-that result in the great variety of southern vimanas leading to their differentitation and classification into categories. The four-sided square or oblong plans, and the curvilinear-circular, elliptical and apsidal plans-become familiar even in the earlier Buddhist and non-Buddhist temples. But the hexagonal or octagonal plan that is found introduced in the make-up of the southern vimana would be rather uncommon.
In the matter of rise the simple or ekatala vimana consist essentially of six vertical components, which, from base to apex, would be (1) the adhishthana, or basement, (2) the pada, or pillar, or the bhitti, or wall, according as the structure stands on either or both of these supports enclosing the sanctum, (3) the prastara or architrave, with the prominent cornice, or kapota, (4) the griva or clerestory over sanctum terrace and entablature, (5)the sikhara or ultimate roof coveing the top of the clerestory or griva, and (6) the stupi or finial crowning the top of the sikhara. Such a simple structure, or alpa vimana, is said to be ekatala, or single-storeyed and is shadanga or shadvarga, i.e. in six parts. The addition of another tala to its body part, or harmya, and architrave or prastara of smaller dimensions than the groundfloor and the griva sikhara-stupi components above, would make the vimana a dvitala one, or two-storeyed, with eight angas, the additions being the harmya nad prastara of the second tala. Such ashtanga vimanas were more common in the earlier stages. The number of storeys could be increased to three or four (tritala, chatushtala, etc.), in which case they were called jati vimanas. The larger vimanas with panchatala and more storeys reaching up to sixteen are mentioned in the Slipa text as mukhya vimanas. A case in point is the great Brihadisvara vimanas of Thanjavur, which rises to a height of over 60 meters.
The most characteristic and general feature of the southern vimana is the presence of a string of miniature vimana-like shrines on top of each storey, above the prastara set on its periphery, and surrounding the body, or harmya, of the next tala. Such a string is called the hara. While a hara is not prescribed for the ekatala ALPA vimanas of the simple type, the jati and mukhya vimanas are provided with such haras. In the earlier examples dating up to about AD 700, the hara is found on top of all the talas of the multstoreyed vimana, including the topmost tala where it surrounds the griva. In later cases the hara on thetopmost tala is absent. Its place is taken by the vahanas or vehicles, or lanchanas, that is, congnizant symbols appropriate to the principal deity enshrined in the sanctum of the aditala. They are Nandis or bhutas in Siva temples, lions in Devi, Vishnu or jain temples, garuda in Vishnu temples, and so on. This became an invariable feature of the southern temples from this period onwards. Thus the creedal or denominational character and the type of the consecreation of a temple can be recognized even from a distance from the nature of the vahanas, or lanchanas placed on the topmost tala.
According to the plan-four -sided, polygonal or curvilinear-the southern vimanas are classified in the southern Silpa and Agama text as nagara, Dravida and Vesara. That which is four-sided, square or oblong, from the base to the finial, or has a four-sided griva and sikhara, is classify as Nagara. That which is hexagonal or octagonal from the base to the finial, or has a hexagonal or octagonal griva and sikhara, is termed Dravida. The one which is circular, ellipsoidal or apsidal from base to top, or has such a plan in its griva and sikhara, is Vesara. While generally the uniform square or oblong plan is met with making up a pure form of Nagara, in many cases the griva and sikhara may assume the octagonal, or circular, or apsidal plan over a square body constituted by the aditala, or the series of talas in simple or multi-storeyed examples. This would make such vimanas, Dravida or Vesara of the mixed variety. Likewise, the oblong body may carry an elliptical griva and sikhara, which would make the vimana Vesara again. Thus, more than the shape of the basal parts or body, it is the plan of the griva sikhara components that really matters in this type of classification.
The squar, circular, hexagonal or octagonal structure which has a sikhara that is domical and ends up in a single finial, or stupi, is called kuta vimana with kuta sikhara. The oblong and ellipsoidal body structures with a wagon-top, vault-like or inverted boat-like roof, or sikhara with a row of stupis on top along the ridge, are known as sala vimana, or koshtha, or sabha forms. The chapa, or apsidal structure which has an apsidal roof and a series of finials along the horizontal part is generally called the hastriprishtha, or gajaprishtha, since it resembles the hind view of a standing elephant. It comes in the category of panjaras or nidas.
The hara, or string of diminutive shrines on top of the talas of multi-storeyed vimanas, is composed of these three classes of shrine forms-the miniature kuta, sala (or koshtha), and panjara (or nida). These are placed at the corners at the corners and along the sides on the top edges of the tala, and are interconnected by lengths of cloister-like or parapet-like parts of lesser height than the kuta, kosthaand panjara elements, called the harantara. These harantara cloister lengths have lateral bay window-like projections, with a lower rectangular component or window proper, projected from the wall of the cloister, and an arched dormer, the upper component, projected from the coping roof of the harantara cloister. These are called kshudranasikas, since they are smaller than similar projections from the sides of the main griva sikhara part of the vimana which are the maha nasikas and originally functioned as ventilators. It will be seen that the hara in most of the Mamalla-style cave-temples is a string of oblong salas alone, and the kutas at the extreme of each side, coinciding with the corners and hence called karnakutas, are to be found for the first time in the Pancha Pandava cave-temple. While the salas along the lengths of each side and the karnakutas at the corners are found in most of the monolithic vimanas, the nida or panjara as the third element of the hara makes its appearance only in two cases, namely, over the first tala of the Dharmaraja ratha and the second tala of the Nakula-Sahadeva ratha completed towards the close of the seventh century. Though this is not repeated in the alpa vimanas with one, two or three talas of the structural phase, both of the Chalukyas and the Pallavas, the nida appears as an invariable constituent of the larger jati and mukhya vimanas from the eighth century onwards.
The hara may stand apart from the central harmya of the tala that it surrounds, leaving a narrow circumambulatory passage in between as in the Dharmaraja ratha where all the talas are intended to be functional, each with a cella. Such a hara is said to be anarpita. This scheme of a ring of miniature shrine motifs round the central body of each storey would be after a similar lay-out plan at ground level, of a central shrine surrounded by subsidiary or parivara shrines and would denote that it is schematically carried up at every storey level. This scheme of anarpita hara was possible in the case of vimanas where the cella was sandhara, or enclosed by a double wall, with circumambulatory interspace between the two walls and with the inner wall rising to a greater height to from the second tala harmya, while the outer wall rose to the height to from the second tala harmya, while the outer wall rose to the height of the aditala alone carrying over its prastara and hara. By further extension of this principle, the number of concentric walls round the aditala sanctum could be three, resulting in a three-storeyed vimana, the outermost wall rising to the hight of the aditala, the middle one to the height of the third tala, with horizontal separations at each tala height forming a system of three superposed garbha-grihas arranged one over the other, with deities inside them.
Though a few such vimanas are to be found built from the Pallava times onwards, a universal extension of the scheme in all cases of vimanas of the mukhya class would have resulted in ponderous, squat edifices of uncouth proportion of base and height, the former much larger in area as compared to the height. The solution was to design massive wals round the aditala sanctum which could rise to heights and bear the load and make the upper talas schematic or non-functional storeys with the haras coalescing with the tala harmya wall, thus eliminating the intervening circumambulatory space. Such a hara was called arpita, and the vimana with such a single wall round the cella in its aditala was known as nirandhara. All this was actuated by the desire to construct vimanas of impressive loftiness on comparatively smaller base areas.
The quadrature or the sides of the aditala in the case of four-sided, polygonal, circular or apsidal structures, could be broken by offset projections or bays at intervals, starting from the lowermost part of the adhishthana. This scheme could be carried up to the talas above also, resulting in a scheme of bays at the corners and along the sides, with intervening recesse. The projected bays are denoted as the ratha projections in the northern-style temples and are described as tri ratha, pancha ratha, sapta ratha, etc. according as the offset bays on each side of the square are three, five or seven. The nomenclature is not applied to these parts in the southern vimanas. The bays here are called bhadras. They are cantoned by pilasters at their outer corners. On their inner angles with the adjacent walls, and over the prastara region, likewise offset, they carry the members of the hara-kuta, sala or panjara, as the case may be. The corner ones, equal-sided and square carry the kutas of the hara which invariably occupy the corners and are aptly called karnakuta. The bays on each face of the vimana coming between the corner ones are wider when they carry the salas of the hara over their prastara. In between these two, the third type of projections would be the narowes since they carry the panjara or nidha element of the hara over their prastara. These occur only in the lager jati and mukhya vimanas. These bays, particularly the wider ones with the sala on top, have niches sunk into them between the cantoning pilasters over the level of the adhishthana and below the kapota of the prastara. These are occupied by figure sculptures and are called devakoshthas. The intervening recesses between the bays represent the wall proper of the tala and are generally without sculpture in the earlier examples. They have only the pilasters, but some later ones have sculpture panels too, even shallow niches, or decorative type of pilaster motifs.
The pillars and pilasters conform more or less to their wooden originals with moulded ‘capitals’, or tops, which comprise the ‘order’ as it is termed in architectural parlance. The shaft has a base or pedestal, the omna, and has onits top a band of lotus petals with a scheme of loops of garlands hanging down. This part called malasthana and padma bandha marks the top end of the shaft and the beginning of the capita which consist of moulded parts, a pitcher, lasuna or kalasa, placed over the padma bandha, a saucer-shaped part called tadi, a flattened, bulbous or cushion-shaped member over it called the kumbha carrying an inverted platter-shaped part, and a doucine moulding, called the pali (or padma when it is shaped to simulate an inverted lotus blossom with petals) which realy forms the underside of a plank-like abacus-the phalaka. The phalaka, large, thick and square in ealier forms, became polygonal or circular and thinner an smaller in later temple. It supports the corbel-bracket or block, potika, which carries the beam, or uttira. The oma, or pillar base, is often shaped or transformed into a figue sculpture of an animal, real or mythical, or of a celestial being. Thus there are the squatting or rearing uyalas (mythical lion-like forms with transformed faces), elephants, nagas, nagadevas, bhutas, etc. The pillar shaft, as also the capital components, except the phalaka (which remains always square in earlier forms), May, instead of being four-sided or square, have six-eight, sixteen or more sides, or be circular in section. The potikas assume various shapes, like the taranga potikas of the Pallava cave-temples or the simple beveled ones in others. They later develop a central projecting tenon, or double volute, or assume the shape of a projecting curved arm terminated by a pendentive lotus bud, the pushpa potikas of the temples of the fifteenth century and later. These shapes indicate regional developments and also chronological evolution.
Another important architectural feature is the torana which is essentially an arched festoon (occasionally straight as in the toranas of Sanchi), mounted over two columns and marking a sacred or ceremonial entrance. Such free-standing torana entrances or stambha toranas are stated to have preceded the gopura entrances of ancient palaces. But while the entrance torana has been retained in the northern monuments, as at Sanchi and Bhubaneswar, it is the gopura entrance that has prevailed in the south and forms the most characteristic and invariable part of the temple complex. The torana idea is, however, not lost; the motifs are applied to many niches and entrances on the body of the vimana or the gopura and are known as bhitti toranas. Their supporting columns are of the same type as the pillars or pilasters with the capital components. From the mouths of opposed makaras perched on top of the phalaka or abacus re sprung the arched festoons of flowers and foliage, or friezes of animals, ganas and other forms. Such toranas are accordingly called patra toranas, chitra toranas, uidyadhara toranas, etc. These are found to frame the entrances of some cave-temples, the fronts of the niches, or devakoshthas, on the walls of the vimana, and the fronts of the nasikas of various orders and sizes-the mahanasika, the sukanasika, the kshudra-nasika, and the alpanasika. The gable-window like arched kudu ornaments on the kapota, of the prastara are fronte by toranas bereft of the supporting columns. The adhishthana, or pedestal, is also variable. In its simplest and most primary form it would consist of an offset bottom course, the upana,a taller neck-like recessed vertical course, the kantha, and a projecting platform, the prati or pattika. Such a one is called a mancha. A slight elaboration would be the insertion of a torus moulding called the kumuda which is three-faceted (tripatta), or rounded (vritta), and placed above the kantha an below the pattika, having another plain mouldings, less offset than the upana but taller and coming over it, called the jagati. A third varia would be the one with the addition of a flexed kapota or cornice below the pattika region. A jagati or kumuda may also be placed over a series of lotus petals shown as spread over the upana. These in earlier periods indicate regional forms and show elaboration in later forms.
Different combinations for adhishthana forms, the number of talas in the talachchanda, variations of the hara components between the karnakutas, their alternate or opposite position in the successive talas, their number and other features gave rise to different types of vimanas as classified in detail on the Silpa ans Agama texts and as found among thousands of temples in the south.
While the unitary type of the southern temple in its simplest form consisted merely of the vimana proper enclosing the garbha-griha, with a porch-like antarala or adha-mandapa, with the growth of the Agama and rituals, elaboration set in. Mandapas, such as the maha-mandapa, mukha-mandapas, agra-mandapas etc. were added axially and soon peripherally also like the utsava sthapana and the sabha-mandapas. The mandapas. The mandapas of the southern temples are al flat-roofed, however long or large they may be. Occasionaly one finds them sloppy-roofed if the local climatic conditions so demand as, for instance, on the west coast and the extreme tip of the peninsula. This is in sharp contrast to what obtains in the northern prasada temples whether of Gujarat, Orissa or central India. There one invariably finds pyramidally rising or tiered superstructures terminating in a final over the roofs of the mandapa in the axial or transverse line of the main prasada, the superstructures being of the ghantasamavarana type, or its simplified pitha-peda type. Though this scheme gives a distinct sky-line of successively ascending finals from the top of the foremost or outermost mandapa to that of the main sikhara of the prasada, it does make a rather heavy cluster of towers and necessitates also the main sikhara, superstructure over the prasada sanctum, to be relatively much higher than that of the mandapas. The flat roof of the mandapas, which are mere adjuncts to the main vimana of the southern temple, allows always the vimana which is the most important and dominating entity to stand clear against the sky-line.
The mandapas, very rarely astylar inside, are mostly supported on pillars and are closedor open on the sides. When closed they have a series of pilasters against the inner faces of the walls. On their outer faces the external scheme obtaining in the main vimana is followed. The pillars are mostly of the simple type, with the top and bottom sections square on plan and with the intervening section octagonal or polygonal, as in the case of the southern rock-cut cave-temples which, on that account, are popularly called mandapa-temples. The names Kotikal mandapam, Orukal mandapam, Idaichi mandapa, etc. indicate this. Additional square sections are also interposed in the middle region in the case of all pillars. Such simple mandapa pillars do not have differentiated capital mouldings, but bear the potika or corbel block directly over the top square section. They may occasionally have the full capitals of the order or, as in the case of the cave-temples of the Decan, they may be of the kumbha-valli type or have the so-called cushion capitals mentioned earlier. In later mandapa of the Chalukyan series, the pillars above thir square base are rendered into a series of curved and rounded shapes by being turned on a lathe. In later mandapas of the Pallava-Pandya series, the pillars have attached portrait statues, animal figures or a number of columnettes called ani-yotti-k-kal.
Though the rudimens of the plan of the mandapa are to be seen in the rock-cut caves and in the remains from Nagarjunkonda, their patterns became more distinct in the stone-and-brick temples of the seventh century onwards. In the Chalukya-Rashtrakuta series in the Deccan and in those that took after them and succeeded them, the mandapa is of two patterns. In the first case it is divided into a central nave with a raised roof over taller pillars, or with clerestory, and two lateral aisles with lower roofs. In the second pattern the mandapa is essentially square, being elaborated all round concentrically by the addition of peripheral rings of the same short, squat pillars as the central ones. With four central pillars standing on the corners of a central square and twelve peripheral pillars or pilasters set up at equal distances, in axial transverse and diagonal alignment with the central ones, a system of eight bays surrounding the central bay (making in all nine bays) would result in the mandapa becoming a navaranga. The addition of twenty more pillars as a still outer ring in alignment with the inner ones and at the corners would correspondingly increase the number of bays to twenty-five and make the mandapa a larger square. The Pallava-Pandya series of temples, and what followed them in material, technique and tradition in the succeeding periods in the farther south, elaborated the shape from the square to the oblong by emphasizing linear rows of taller pillars with wider spans. All this resulted in such multi-pillared mandapas as the hundred- or thousand-pillared halls.
Till about the commencement of the eleventh century, the gopuras, or storeyed gatewaus, piercing the protective prakara, or enclosure wall, characteristic of the southern temples, were built comparatively smaller than the vimana. They are essentially oblong on plan, transversely linear, with the entrance running through at the middle, and, with a single simple or storeyed superstructure, terminated by a sala sikhara with a row of stupis. The talachchanda, or system of storeys, with hara components at each level, is much akin to that of the oblong or ayatasra vimana. In the earlier series of temples mostly the alpa and jati vimanas prevailed. Ther larger temples with jati vimanas included in their lay-out scheme the gopuradvara, or main gateway entrance, which was of considerably smaller proportions and height than the main vimana that always dominated the entire composition. These small and middle size gopuras were single-or two-or three- storeyed, called dvarasobha, dvarasala, dvaragopura, etc. From the close of the tenth century onwards when larger vimanas came to be constructed, the gateway came to assume correspondingly larger proportions, becoming many-storeyed and called mahadvara, or gopura, or rajagopuram. The gatewaus also tended to increase in height and size, ultimately to become the dominating structures of the temple complex. This could be seen particularly in the case of those ancient temples where the main vimana nucleus that was ancient was kept intact and the prakara and gopura adjuncts came to be successively added round it in later times as in the Chidambaram, Tiruvannamalai, Madurai and Srirangam temple complexes. There was thus a shift in emphasis from the main vimana in the gopura, with the result that hile in the earlier temple complexes, as in the Brihadisvara temple at Thanjavur, the sky-line descends from the stupi of the main vimana to the outer of the two front gopura built almost in the same period as the main vimana, it ascends from the centre to the outermost gopura in the four temple complexes mentioned above.
