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

122

SYMBOLISM OF THE

ARCH

idea. There was

also the practical reason that when good

timber and building stone

of almost any dimensions were

plentiful,the

beamand -bracket

weregenerallymoreexpedient

than

the

arch,especiallyin a country liable to severe earth-

quakes.

Whenthe

Muhammadansdestroyedthe imagescontained

in thenichesandadapted

thebuildingsfortheirown worship,

theniche itself and the

arches which formed it remained as

sacredsymbols

;

and thus fromthe

moreextended use of the

Indian pointed arch for structural purposes a new era in

architectural historywas openedbothinEuropeand in India.

It wasin the buildings of theVaishnavaite schools that

thearchwas most frequentlyused constructively, for colossal

standing figures of Vishnu, or of Buddha, covered by the

sikhara insteadofbyaflat roofor dome, would tend tobring

thearch into use—as was the case at Bodh-Gay^. Thein-

tentionofthebuildersoftheVaishnavaiteschools—boththose

of Brahmanism and of Buddhism—was to symbolise the

dynamic {rdj'asic) or active principle of nature—known to

modern science as evolution. And for this they took the

upright image of Vishnu or of Buddha as Upholder ofthe

Universe, and for its shrine the ancient nature-symbol of

theholymount,whichVishnuupturnedand usedforachurn-

ingstickin theallegoryofthecosmicdawn.^

Plate

XXXI gives the section of aVaishnava sikhara,

butin this temple there isacombination of symbols, i.e. in-

stead of

building a pair of temples, one for

the Vaishnava

Aspect and

another for the Saiva Aspect, a

Siva lingam

is

placed in

the Brahmi shrine under

a lotus dome crowned

by Vishnu's sikhara,

and Siva's bull

occupies the centre of

the pillared mandapam

provided forthe

worshippers. Thus

1

Theequilateraltriangle

standingonitsapexisageometric

Vishnii symbol; the

reverse
isaSivasymbol.