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

I02

SECTARIAL MARKS

they

areplacedand ofthe obvious

factthatthecraftsmanship

of both

belongs tothesame school and

often is of precisely

thesamedate—the

onlydistinction between

the two temples

as regards stylebeinginthe

symbolism.

Thissymbolic distinctionhadan

importantbearingupon

the

respective constructive principles of

Vishnu and Siva

shrines.

The distinction is also recognised in

the sectarial

marks

painted ontheforeheadsofVaishnavaites

andSaivaites.

As

Vishnu, regarded as a nature-symbol, is the sun

at its

zenith and

nadir, the Vaishnava schools of philosophy

generally

took for their sectarial marks various lines which

stood

for theuprightarmofthecosmiccross,'andthesikharas

ofVishnu

shrines (whether Buddhist,

Jain,

Vaishnavaite or

Saivaite)

werebuiltinsoaringlines—thelinesofthemountain

peak—like the

Gothic

spire, its

Western analogue. The

rival

schools of Saivaites draw horizontal lines upon their

foreheads

to indicate the philosophical concepts of Brahmi

and Siva,

which were

baseduponthe

earliestVedicsymbolism

of sunrise

and sunset—or the horizontal arm of the cross.

The

roofs of Siva shrines, though they might emulate those

of

Vishnuin height, were thereforealways built in

horizontal

courses, likethepyramids ofEgypt.

Therewas alsoacomposite form of

construction, i.e. in-

stead ofbuildingVishnu and Sivashrines separately

in pairs,

bothtechnical methods and both symbolswere

combined in

onetemple. Thisis thecharacteristic of the medieval

school

of temple-building in

Western India, which

Fergusson, for

wantofabetter

name, called

"

Chalukyan," from the

dynasty

which ruledoverthatpartof

India.

All over the north of India

there are to

be found in-

numerable fine examples of

the simplest

type of Vishnu

>

See

Moor's

"

Hindu

Pantheon," PI. I,for

acompleteseries of

Indiansectarial

marks.