GUPTA AND LATE GUPTA TEMPLES (C. 400-700 A.D)

The Gupta age was marked by an unprecedented intelle ctual ferment and creative upsurge in all branches of arts and letters. Hitherto, temples were largely made of timber or other perish able material. The potentiality of dressed stone was for the first time appreciated during the Gupta period which ushered in an age of temple construction that was characterized by a more reasoned application of structural principles. Under the impact of the bhakti cult or worship of the personal god, which had taken deep root and permeated all the sects and sections of society, temples were built in fair number for the installatioin and worship of popular deities like Vasudeva and Balarama, Varaha and Narsimha, Vishnu, Shiva, Skanda and Bhddha throughout northern and central India and the Deccan of which a handful have survived. The ritual of the worship required basically a sanctum for the deity and a shelter for the worshipper, which were logically provided in the Gupta shrine.

Thus a firm foundation of Indian temple architecture was laid in the Gupta period when the basic, characteristic elements of the Indian temple—consiisting of a square sanctum and a pillared porch—emerged. The examples of the evolved Gupta temple also show a covered processional path for circumambulation which formed a part of the worship-ritual. The earlier examples in stone masonry are distinguished by a flat slab-roof, usually monolithic, while the later temples, constructed of either brick or stone, developed a shikara. The gradual evolution of the style is tra ceable through development of the plan and the ornamentation on the pillars and door-frame, the latter introducing new decorative motifs like goblins (ganas), couples (mithumnas), flyuing angels (vidyadharas), door-keepers (d varapalas) and a significant figure relief in the c entre of the lintel, emblematic of the deity to whom the shrine is dedicated.

The earliest group of Gupta temples, dating from 5th century and showing a single-celled sanctum with a shallow portico resting on 4 pillars in front, is represented by Temple 17 at Sanchi (the site of the famous Buddhist Stupa of the 2nd century B.C.), the Gupta Temple at Tigawa (District Jabalpur), and the temples at ran (District Sagar), A notable feature of these temples is the wider intercolumnination of the pillars in the middle than on the sides. As suggested by the flat roof, square or rectangular form the plain treatment of the walls and modestness of size, these temples must obviously have been derived from rock-cut proto-types of which early Gupta examples occur at Udaigiri near Sanchi. In fact Cave-shrine 1 at Udaigiri with a partly rock-cut sanctum and a structural porch of 4 pillars is of the early Gupta type, supporting the aforementioned inference.

Temple 17 at Sanchi is a classic example of lucid diction, perfect articulatiion and restrained decoratioin. It is considered to be the oldest structural Gupta temple because of its smaller dimensions, simplicity of constructioin and absence of vase-and-foliage member in its pillars which show a fluted bell-capital, the latter being an early feature. The temple at Tigawa has a more-and-foliage member united with the capital, a characteristic then on of the Gupta order. At Sanchi and Tigawa the pillars are crowned by brackets carved with figures of seated lions, a practice discontinued subsequently. The Vishnu Temple at Eran shows an evolved plan of definite architectural significance in that its sanctum has a central offset on the cardinal faces (except at the front). Its door-frame and porch pillars, however, were lately added, probably in the early Pratihara period (8th-9th centuries). The ruined Shiva Temple at Sakor (District Damoh) appears to be the latest temple of this type; it is distinguished by a closed mandapa and an ornamental doorway resembling in design that of the Shiva Temple at Bhumara (District Satna) belonging to the next group.

The second group of temples, characterised by the addition of a roofed ambulatoryround the sanctum and otherwise following the plan of the preceding group, is represented by the Parvati Temple at Na chna (District Panna in M.P.), and a ruined brick temple at Baigram (District Dinajpur, Bangladesh). The wall and the roof of the once-covered passage of the Nachna Temple have now disappeared leaving a an open promenade, where the ambulatory is lighted by trellises. The Nachna Temple is also notable for carrying a swuare, flat-roofed cell as an upper chamber placed above the sanctum. The plain facade of the Nachna Temple was originally relieved by a few sculptured niches and a continuous relief imitating rock-formations and grottos, containing figures of birds and animals. The Bhumara Temple is significant for introducing two smaller shrines on the flanks of the entrance steps. Its dado, door-frames, pillars and beams display exquisitely carved s crolls, dwarfs and kirttimukhas.

The next group of Gupta temples, distinguished by the presence of a spire over the square sanctum, is represented, among others, by the Dasha vatara Temple at Deogarh (District Lalitpur), constr5ucted of stone, and the brick-built Gupta temple at Bhitargaon (Distri ct Kanpur), both dating from c.6th century. These temples showing a rudimentary shikhara, which became the most characteristic feature of the north Indian style of temple-architecture, are highly significant. The Deogarh temple stands on a wide platform, approached by fights of steps on the 4 sides, and is of the panchaytatana (quincunx) t;ype having a subsidiar;y shrine in each corner. The platform is decorated with sculptured panels between pilasters representing edifying scenes from the legends of Rama and Krishna. The plain walls on the 3 sides of the tri-ratha sanctum are relived with recessed panels, each carved with a superb figure-composition within a framework of pilasters and architraves, depicting Vishnu as Sheshashayi, Gajendramoksha and the penance of Nara and Narayana. Its shikhara which is but partly preserved was probably pyramidical in elevation and was mainly em bellished with the chaitya-dormer motif. The Deogarh temple is one of the earliest to draw on the stories of Rama and Krishna which have inspired Indian artists in all ages. Only a few panels, mostly detached from the platform, have survived, of which 1o depict Rama's stories and 2_Krishna's. One of the Ramayana panels shows Ahilya, who was turned into stone by a curse, regaining her human form by the touch of the sacred feet of Rama. Another panel depicts Lakshmana cutting off the nose of Surpanakha, the sister of Ravana, for her audacity to propose amours. A third panel shows Hanuman bodily bringing the hill containing the herb that cured Lakshmana of the mortal wound inflicted by Meghanada, the son of Ravana. Of the two Krishna-lila friezes, one depicts Krishna as a miracle-child upturning the cart, while the other shows Krishna and Balarama being fondled as infants by Nanda and Yashoda, the latter wearing Abhira dress, resem bling the dress now worn by the ruralwomenfolk of Delhi and Haryana regions.

The temple at Bhaitargaon, constructed of brick and terracotta, is a stupendous pyramidical edifice (ht.21m) of diminishing tiers, raised on a high terrace. It is tri-ratha on plan with a prominent centrzal offset on each of the 3 sides and consists of a sanctum and ante-room (4.57m and 2.14m square internally), connected by an oblong passage. While the sanctum and the a nte-room had corbelled ceilings representing domical vaults, the passage and the entrance steps were covered by a wagon-vault roof. The mouldings of the podium are bold. The jangha (wall) is embellished with large sculptures niches, framed between ornamental pilasters and surmounted by a recessed row of terracotta bands between 2 prominent cornices. The terrocotta sculptures and friezes depict both secular and religious themes, suchg as divinties like Ganesha, Adi-Varaha, Mahishasura-mardini and river-goddesses, myths and stories representing the abduction of Sita and the penance of Nara and Narayana; and the divine ministrels and the dwarfs. Human and animal figures, fabulous birds and beasts and scrolls and other decorative designs further enrich the repertoire of decoration. The shikhara, though incompletely preserved, is a stepped pyramid, embellished with superimposed tiers of chaitya-niches containing a variety of heads or busts or full figures, generally human.
The original brick-built Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya(Districtt Gaya), though heavily encumbered with later restoration, is roughly co-eval with the Bhitargaon Temple and resembles the latter in essential features of plan and design including the valuated ceilings of the compartments and the tall lancet window in the upper storey. Its square sanctum carries a lofty (55 m high) pancha-ratha shikhara of a straight-edged pyramidicaldesign, demarcated
into 7 storeys by bhumi-amalakas and embellished with bold chaitya-dormers and niches framed by pilasters.
The Mahabodhi temple enshrining an image of Buddha in the earth-touching attitude marks the site of the holy tree jnder which Siddhartha Gautama saw the light and became 'Buddha' or the 'Enlightened One'. The legends associated with this supreme event are graphically narrated in Buddhist literature and are favourite themesof sculpture and painting in India and the Buddhist countries of South-East Asia. After six years of exertioin in quest of knowledge the Bodhisattva (Budha-to-be) undertook rigorous penance and carried fasting to such an excess the he was reduced to a skeleton--a scene realistically depicted in Gandhara sculpture. Realising the futility of mortification as the path for attaining knowledge, he resumed food whereupon the five companions who had attended on him during the past six years deserted him in disdain and went away to the Deer-forest (Samath).
On the eve of the full moon day of Vaishakha the Bodhisattva saw five dreams auguring his Enlightenment. Shortly after day-break he took his seat under the holy tree. It so happened that Sujata, the daughter of the local chieftain, also rose early that day to make an offering to the holy tree of rice-milk which she had cooked after eleborate preparation for the fulfilment of her desire to have a son when she got married. She sent her maid to clean the area round the holy tree and when her maid reported that the tree-divinityhad appeared in person, Sujata hurried to the spot and offered the golden vessel containing the rice-milk to the divinity who was no other than the Bodhisattva. Thereupon the Bodhisattva went to the river Niranjana, had a bath and ate the rice-milk which was to sustain him for the following seven weeks. The scenes of Sujata's offering and the bath in the Niranjana are depicted in beautiful reliefs on the great stupa of Borobudur in Java.
In the evening the Bodhisattva marched to the holy tree and was offered for seat a handufl of grass by god Indra disguised as Brahmin Svastika, who is represented on one ofthe earliest sculptures atBodh Gaya.
As the Bodhisattva sat in meditation under the holy tree (one of the polular ways of representing the Master) with a firmdetermination not to leave the adamantine seat till he had attained supreme wisdom, there arose a storm of conflict in his mind which is popularly represented in plastic and graphic arts as the scene of temptation. The legends say that Mara, the god of desire, sent his charming daughters totempt the Bodhisattva and when their blandishments failed,he sent his demon army to hurl all conceivable weapons and missiles which also proved futile. Mara, however, did not own defeat until the Bodhisattva called the earth to bear witness to his triumph by touching the ground with his right hand, which is another favourite method of representing the Master, as illustrated by the main image in the Mahabodhi Temple.
The most developed among the temples of the post-Gupta period is the brick-built Lakshmana temple at Sirpur (District Raipur, M.A.), which belongs roughly to the beginning of the 7th century and consists of a square sanctum roofed by a slightly curvilinear massive shikhara, resembling that of the Parashurameshvara temple at Bhubaneswar (p.68) in outline, constridted vestibule and a pillared mandapa enclosed by a brick wall, embellished with niches framed by pilasters and approached by 2 lateral flights of steps, the whole resting on a high platform. The sanctum is pancharatha on plan and in elevation and shows a cardinal projection on 3 sides decorated with a beautifully carved sham door and a vertical row of 3 elaboratechaitya dormers over the shikhara. The rest of the faces of the temple are tastefully ornamented with bold designs of niches and pilasters, miniature shikharas and chaitya-dormers arranged in vertical bands which cast pleasing shadows and are intersected by horizontal bands of cornices decorated with small chaitya-niches. The recess dividing the jangha(wall) from the spire is marked with bold dipers. Althoughthe crowning ornaments of the shikhara are lost, heavy bhumi-amalakas indicating its division into 4 storeys are present on the corner buttresses. With its developed socle mouldings and its stout but slightlyincurved shikhara, this temple marks a transition between the Gupta and the early medieval temples, anti cipating several features of the latter.
We may also notice briefly the Gupta Temples of aberrant types. Among these the temple of Mani-naga (now called Maniyar Math) at Rajgir near Nalanda is a cylindrical brick-structure with shallow offsets at the 4 cardinal points. It is decorated with niches,originally containing stucco sculptures of Ganesha, Vishnu, Nataraja, worship of Shivalinga, nagas and an exquisite naga figure.
The temple known as Stupa Sita III at Nalanda, where the world-famous University was sited, consists of a series of 7 successive accumulations, of which the fifth one dating from the 6th century is a panchayatana with its 4 stupa-like corner towers and faces elaborately decorated with niches containing fine Buddhist stucco images. The temple is a solid rectangular structure and its lofty sanctum is approached by a grand flight of steps with its parapet walls embellished with majestic figures of lions.
Mukundara (District Kota, Rajasthan) has a flat-roofed, sand-stone temple possessing an ambulatory and resting on well-finished but stunted pillars with distinctive brackets. Standing on a low platform approached by 2 lateral flights of steps, this temple is notable as much for its ave-like simplicity of construction as for its retrained ornamentation with typical Gupta decorative motifs.
The stone temple of Mundeshvari (old Mandaleshvara) at Ramgarh (District Rohtas, Bihar) is an octagonal shrine (12.20m in diameter) of 8 principal offsets with 4 doorways in the cardinal directions and 4 niches in the corners, each flanked by a pair of smaller niches. The door-frames and niches are adorned with figures and ornaments of the developed Gupta style. The ceiling and the roof of the temple are lost, but traces of a mandapa have survived in front. The temple is securely dated in 636 by an inscription.
We come across yet another type of Gupta Temple which, though distinctive, is not very popular. This type is marked by a rectangular shrine with an apsidal rear-end and a wagon-vault roof showing a gable-end of the chaitya-dormer design. It is represented by only two examples, one at Ter, District Sholapur (Maharashtra) and the other, the Kapoteshvara Temple at Chezarla in District Krishna (Andhra Pradesh). Both are brick-structures, about 9.5m long, and are obviously the structural models of rock-cut chaitya-halls.
A few terraced brick-temples of the Gupta period have also survived. These are high solid structures and in each case the shrine is placed on the uppermost terrace, approached by a flight of steps. The earliest and best preserved specimen is the excavated temple at Pawaya, near Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. showing 3 terraces of which the upper 2 are decorated with a continuous row of ornate pilasters surmounted by a frieze of chaitya-dormers. Terraced brick-temples,decorated with terracotta sculptured tiles continued to be built till the early medieval period. Large temples of this type have been exposed to view at the sites of Ahichchhaira (Ramnager) in Bareilly District and Paharpur (Bangladesh), the latter being remarka ble for its cruciform plan and enormous dimensions.
The later Gupta period appears to hve been an age of experimentatioin in north India. During the 7th-8th centuries, various temple forms were tried and we find a fair number with a flat roof, others with an undeveloped curvilinear shikhara and a few with a pyramidical roof of receding tiers. Small, flat-roofed shrines comprising in tri-ratha sanctum and a portico with 2 pillars in front are found in central India, continuing the tradition of the early Gupta Temple form. More than a dozen of them have been recently discovered at the sites of Ramgarh, Chhapara and Badoh in District Vidisha, near Sanchi, in addition to a few from the Lalitpur area of District Jhansi. These are unpretentious temples with a simple podium, a wall of large slabs, and a flat monolithic slab-roof each for the sanctum and the portico, the latter being slightly lower. Most of them are smaller than the earliest Gupta Temples at Sanchi and Tigawa and are generally simpler in construction, though they have a more ornate door-frame and pillars, and display sculptured niches crowned by a pediment on each of the 3 cardinal offsets. The pillars of the porch include vase-and-foliage member at the base, a lotus-band and kirttimukhas and again a vase-and-foliage capital, surmounted by brackets either of plain, curved profile or embellished with the foliage characteristically found in the Pratihara age, representing a quarter lotus.
A variant of this type also occurs at Ramgarh and Chhapara, displaying a decoration of only pilasters on the wall. Similar shrines of a slightly later date exist at Kundalpur (District Damoh in M.P.). The most ornate example of this variety is the Shiva Temple at Mahua (District Shivapuri in M.A.), which combines the decor of pilasters with sculptured niches on the cardinal offsets. This temple is also notable for bearing an inscribed record assignable to the 7th century.
An aberrant variety found at Makanganj, District Mandsaur in M.A., shows the cardinal offset only on the rear and the wall decorated with a single niche, surmounted by pediment and inset with an inscribed slab engraved in the same script as the inscription on the Mahua Temple. Another temple at Makanganj, with a swuare tri-ratha sanctum and a severe plain wall, is remarkable for its roof which is an incompletely preserved stepped pyramid composed of members decorated with bold chaitya-dormers inset with grotesque human heads.
The small experimental temples, just noticed, wre a sort of lithic primers and their importance lies in the fact that theyu constitute links between the Gupta and the Pratihara styles.