The ancient and medieval architecture of India: a study of Indo-Aryan civilisation

58

THE SYMBOLISM

OF PILLARS

smoothlyplaned

"

and

decoratedwithpennons,

served

tomark

outthe holyground. RamRiz

givesinteresting

details

taken

from theManasiraSilpa-sastraastothe

ritualistic

significance

of different formsofpillars. A

square-shaftedone

was asso-

ciatedwith Brahma

worship

;

an

octagonal

one with that of Vishnu;

the

circular or

sixteen-sided one with

Rudra-Siva

as the

Destroyer.'

Translating

this

ascription

intoBuddhist

terminology,

it maybe

said

that

thesquarepillarstood

forBuddha,

an

octagonaloneforthe

Sangha,and

acircular

orsixteen-sided

oneforDharma.

Acylin-

drical

pillar without capital or

base was

dedicated to

Chandra, the moon.

Inpillars or piers intended

forstruc-

turalsupport

and

builtupofthreeor

more

pieces,

the capital, shaft, and base are

all

primarilystructuralforms,andthe

decora-

tion should not impair, but rather em-

phasise, the structural functions of

each

part. This principle was fullyrecognised

by

Indian craftsmen in applying their re-

ligioussymbolism

to

theformsofstructural

supports. Fig. 21 showsthetypeofcapital

y

'

\

and basewhich appears in Asokan build-

* *

ings; thestructuralanddecorativeelements

init,derivedfromthe

lotus

flowerandfruit,

andfrom thesacrificialwaterpot, prevailed

invariouscombinationsthroughouttheclassicperiodofIndian

architecture.

In all Indo-Aryanreligious ritual, fromtheearliestVedic

Fig.21.—VishnuPillarfrom

theBharhutSculptures.

1

To s}mbolisetheTrimflrti,ortheThreeAspectsofthe Qne,allthreeformsare

combinedinonepillar,asinthegreattempleofElephanta.