Chapter 4 - Prāsāda styles (F): Lāṭa

In the end something must be said about Lāṭa style. It is curious to note that the text does not mention this style at all. Scholars like Bhattacharya, locate the Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra as the exponent of this style. In Agnipurāṇa the forty-five temples are said to be the specimens of this style. In the Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra however, these forty-five varieties have been ramified into sixty-four varieties, having the basis of those of the Agnipurāṇa.

A fact of special notice in relation to the medieval temple architecture is this that the ancient 20 types of Nāgara temples as described in the Bṛhatsaṃhitā, Viśvakarma-prakāśa and Matsya-purāṇa though retained in Samarāṅgaṇa also but their architectural details together with the decorations and ornamentations, layouts and super-structure, have given rise to the subtle details which characterise them as a great development in their art of architecture by this period, namely, eleventh century A.D. Thus not only these 20 types developed themselves but they gave rise to such a style known as Lāṭa style. Lāṭa is an ancient name of Gujrat. It is the country to the west of Vidarbha—Berar, the rich soil which many a beautiful temple in the eleventh century enriched. And these styles so much talked about in the contemporary books are only local or regional traits. That is, the characteristic features of the cultural contents of the region in which the temple buildings developed and got typified. The culture of the region—Deśa must influence and also predominate both over the body and the soul, that is, the shape, the super-structure and the deity of the Prāsāda. In this connection Varāhamihira’s dictum regarding the dresses and the ornaments of the images is equally applicable in the evolution and development of the shape and super-structure of the temple. Thus the region and its culture must play an important role in determining the style of a particular temple. Thus the style to my mind is the sum total of both the physical and spiritual traits of the region in which a particular type of building is situated, whether it be a residence of God or that of a man together with the genius of the architect, the Sthapati which does not play a less important role.

Samarāṅgaṇa very aptly says:—

pācakaḥ kaṭuṭīkṣṇādyairanusārarasairthaṃth [?] ||
anvīkṣya vipacet tadvat sthapatiḥ sarvamācaret |
yaduktaṃ yadanuktaṃ ca tat samagnamapi sphuṭam ||
(yuktā) yuktaṃ samālocya yathāśobhaṃ samācaret | s0 sū0 55.158-156

I have already pointed out that the Samarāṅgaṇa has treated practically all the styles but particular attention is invited to the treatment of the types of Prāsādas, e.g. in the chapter XLIX or more properly in Chap. LII, it is not the style but the type that has been glorified. Perhaps in those days some of the great temples had become types by themselves. This word ‘type’ I am using in the sense of Jāti. The most conspicuous Jāti goes after a great temple of a great deity, such as, Vairāja and Meru Thus it is only in a very brief outline that I have hinted at the basis of the classification of the temples in the Samarāṅgaṇasūtradhāra