NO. 1921. MODEL OF A BRAHMIN TEMPLE— CASAXOWICZ. G51 



groat authority on tho arcliitectiiro of India, "was a plaro to dis- 

 play his powers of ornamentation, and he thought he accomphshed 

 all his art demanded when he covered every part of a building with 

 the most elaborate and most difficult designs he could invent." The 

 differences either in form or })lan of Hindu temples, as illustrated by 

 extant buildings, answer rather geographical and racial divisions 

 than variations of creed, and there are accordingly distinguished 

 three leading styles: 



1. The northern, in vogue in the vast region between the Hima- 

 layan and Vindhyan Mountains. It is also called the Indo-Aiyan 

 style, because in those parts of India the people are generally kuo^v^l 

 as Aiyans and speak dialects derived from the Sanskrit language. 



2. The Chalukyan style, so called tifter the dynasty which reigned 

 from the sixth to the tenth century A. D. over most of the Dekkan. 

 It is therefore also called the Dekkan style, and is applied to the 

 architecture of the broad zone, between the Narbadda and Kistnah 

 Rivers in Central India. 



3. The Dravidian style, in southern India, the territory nearly 

 identical with the Madras Presidency, which is inhabited by peoples 

 speaking Dravidian tongues. 



1. The northern or Indo- Aryan style. Its main characteristic 

 is the bulging curved tower over the shrine, tapering upward and 

 crowned with the amalaka, so called from its supposed resemblance 

 to a fruit of that name (Phyllanthus emhlica), but which appears 

 more like a melon or large gourd (as seen in the dome of the model). 

 The square plan of the shrine is often rendered slightly cruciform by 

 the addition of slender rectangular projections in the center of each 

 facade. This stjde, in one variety or another, has prevailed in 

 North India from the sixth century A. D. to the present. The iinest 

 examples are assigned to the period between 950 and 1200 A. D., 

 and the temple of Bhuvaneswar in Orissa, dating from G50 A. D., 

 is considered one of the landmarks of this style. 



2. The Chalukyan style. The shrine is polygonal, star shaped in 

 plan with stepped conical, rather low roof and vaselike ornament 

 crownuig the summit. Sometimes two or even three shrines are 

 grouped round a central hall and connected bv a common porch. 

 "The Chahikyan temples," says Ferguson, "are throughout the 

 most elegant forms of Hindu art, and those wiiich will best stand 

 comparison with European examples." ' Nothing surpasses the 

 riclmess and eletrance of the decoration of the Chahikvan temples. 

 The most magnificent example of the Chaluk^'an style is the temple 

 of Iluilabid in Mysore, dating from the thirteentii century A. I). 

 though, owing to the upheaval of the Mohammediiii invasion in 

 1310 A. D., it remained uufbiished. It is a double temple, deilieated 



I James Ferguson, History of Architecture in all Countries, vol. 2, p. 648. Loudon, 1S67. 



