In its vertical
elevation, the temple consists of three parts, the high basement, and the middle portion
of the temple and the Sikhara. As in many other temples. a row of elephants, gajathara,
appears as a basement moulding. On a moulding of about two feet above the plinth, a row of
caparisoned elephants in high relief encircles the building and appears to bear the full
brunt of the edifice. The elephants, all tuskers, are facing outwards, and standing each
16" in height, and are finely designed and executed showing only their tusks, trunks
and front legs. The basement moulding is identical with the decorative style of the
Kailasa cave temple at Ellora. The garbhagriha
"is a crypt, 14 feet square, into which you descend by a flight of stone steps. It
contains the image and its pedestal. The door case to this shrine, is formed of four
blocks of granite, and is ten feet high by five feet wide: a lotus over the door- in the
entrance of the lintel, is the only ornament. The door opens into an anteroom, also of
stone, ten feet by ten feet, having niches of four feet square, stone screens, one on each
side with apertures for the admission of light and air, cut in form of lotus flowers.
"34
The Sikhara of this imposing Hayagriva temple has a pyramidal
plane face, which continues right upto an apex point.
34. Ibid. p. 20. |