FIG. 228.—TEMPLE AT HULLABÎD. DETAIL.
TEMPLES. Chalukyan architecture is exclusively religious and its temples are easily recognized. The plans comprise the same elements as those of the Jainas, but the Chalukyan shrine is always star-shaped externally in plan, and the vimana takes the form of a stepped pyramid instead of a curved outline. The Jaina dome is, moreover, wholly wanting. All the details are of extraordinary richness and beauty, and the breaking up of the surfaces by rectangular projections is skilfully managed so as to produce an effect of great apparent size with very moderate dimensions. All the known examples stand on raised platforms, adding materially to their dignity. Some are double temples, as at Hullabid (Fig. 228); others are triple in plan. A noticeable feature of the style is the deeply cut stratification of the lower part of the temples, each band or stratum bearing a distinct frieze of animals, figures or ornament, carved with masterly skill. Pierced stone slabs filling the window openings are also not uncommon.
The richest exemplars of the style are the temples at Baillur and Somnathpur, and at Hullabîd the Kait Iswara and the incomplete Double Temple. The Kurti Stambha, or gate at Worangul, and the Great Temple at Hamoncondah should also be mentioned.
DRAVIDIAN STYLE. The Brahman monuments of southern India exhibit a style almost as strongly marked as the Chalukyan. This appears less in their details than in their general plan and conception. The Dravidian temples are not single structures, but aggregations of buildings of varied size and form, covering extensive areas enclosed by walls and entered through gates made imposing by lofty pylons called gopuras. As if to emphasize these superficial resemblances to Egyptian models, the sanctuary is often low and insignificant. It is preceded by much more imposing porches (mantapas) and hypostyle halls or choultries, the latter being sometimes of extraordinary extent, though seldom lofty. The choultrie, sometimes called the Hall of 1,000 Columns, is in some cases replaced by pillared corridors of great length and splendor, as at Ramisseram and Madura. The plans are in most cases wholly irregular, and the architecture, so far from resembling the Egyptian in its scale and massiveness, is marked by the utmost minuteness of ornament and tenuity of detail, suggesting wood and stucco rather than stone. The Great Hall at Chillambaram is but 10 to 12 feet high, and the corridors at Ramisseram, 700 feet long, are but 30 feet high. The effect of ensemble of the Dravidian temples is disappointing. They lack the emphasis of dominant masses and the dignity of symmetrical and logical arrangement. The very loftiness of the gopuras makes the buildings of the group within seem low by contrast. In nearly every temple, however, some one feature attracts merited admiration by its splendor, extent, or beauty. Such are the Choultrie, built by Tirumalla Nayak at Madura (1623–45), measuring 333 × 105 feet; the corridors already mentioned at Ramisseram and in the Great Temple at Madura; the gopuras at Tarputry and Vellore, and the Mantapa of Parvati at Chillambaram (1595–1685). Very noticeable are the compound columns of this style, consisting of square piers with slender shafts coupled to them and supporting brackets, as at Chillambaram, Peroor, and Vellore; the richly banded square piers, the grotesques of rampant horses and monsters, and the endless labor bestowed upon minute carving and ornament in superposed bands.
OTHER MONUMENTS. Other important temples are at Tiruvalur, Seringham, Tinevelly, and Conjeveram, all alike in general scheme of design, with enclosures varying from 300 to 1,000 feet in length and width. At Tanjore is a magnificent temple with two courts, in the larger of which stands a pagoda or shrine with a pyramidal vimana, unusual in Dravidian temples, and beside it the smaller Shrine of Soubramanya (Fig. 229), a structure of unusual beauty of detail. In both, the vertical lower story with its pilasters and windows is curiously suggestive of Renaissance design. The pagoda dates from the 14th, the smaller temple from the 15th century.
FIG. 229.—SHRINE OF SOUBRAMANYA, TANJORE.