Temples at Gwalior and Brindabana

Gwalior temples.

There are some eleven structures of a religious character within the perimeter of this rock-bound fortress, five of which take the form of temples. Three of them arc important and the largest of the three, known as the greater Sasbahu or Sahasrabāhu was finished in 1093 A D. The Teli-ka-mandira may be deemed as an earlier construction.

Teli-ka-mandira.

It is a rare type of Brahmanical sanctury having a relic of the distant Buddhist heritage for Śikhara is remarkably noted for its affinity with the Vaital Deul at Bhuvaneśvara.

Sas-bahu.

There are two temples both designated Sas-bahu, literally meaning the “mother-in law and daugther-in-Iaw”.

“Both are in much the same architectural mode, the smaller of the two, although an elegant little building, in comparison with the larger example, of which it is a reduced and simplified copy, is relatively unimportant. For, apart from consideration of style and structure the large Sas-Bahu temple is a most informative production, its Composition and treatment generally adding not a little to our knowledge of architectural development at this period. (Plate CI). Dedicated to Vishu [Vishnu?] in the last years of the eleventh century, although still a grand pile, this temple is but a portion of the original conception, as only the main hall or maṇḍapa remains, the vimāna with its Śikhara which was probably 150 feet in height having disappeared. On plan the building is in the form of a cross, the entire length being 100 feet, the width across the transepts 63 ft. while the height of the great hall was originally about 80 ft.”

“As only the great hall is now the part in existence, it is from this structure alone that the architectural style of the Sas-Bahu can be judged, but it is quite sufficient for purpose. Externally this maha-mandapa or assembly hall is in three stories, which take the form of open galleries or loggias surrounding the building on all sides Each story is defined by a massive architrave, with the spaces between occupied by pillars and piers, the effect of the facades being that of large open arcades”.

Brindavana.

This legendry place very fondly associated with Yogeśvara Kṛṣṇa, famous for his līlās and krīḍas, is an important temple site.

Here is a group of five temples, all built of red sandstone and in the style of architecture different from any others of their kind, these temples are:

1. Govind Devi
2. Radha Ballabha.
3. Gopinath.
4. Yugala Kisore; and
5. Madan Mohan.

These temples show a local development. They are relatively late, belonging to the reign of Akbar, and are a result of the Great Mughal’s notable toleration, they were built to the order of certain Hindu princes who had allied themselves to the Moghul power. The reason of the selection of the site is due to a widespread revival of the Kṛṣṇa Cult, brought about by the preachings of the famous Vaiṣṇava reformer Caitanya.

The largest and the most important of these temples, Govinda Devi, is on the model of Sas-bahu as its elevation being formed of several storeys containing open arcades.

Percy Brown has a very illuminating estimation of this temple:

“But the manner in which this traditional arrangement has been treated, shows that during the intervening period the builders had acquired an entirely new orientation in the field of temple architecture. The Govind Devi temple signifies as comprehensively as any building could do, the change that had taken place in the constitution of this part of the country, owing to the conditions brought about by the Islamic domination, a change, in the case of the building art, from the aesthetically natural to the ordered conventional, from architecture produced largely by rule of thumb, to that resulting from the application of certain well-defined structural principles. One noticeable fact in this temple is the almost entire absence of figure-carving, a circumstance not improbably due to the Islamic usage prohibiting any display of imagery, and communicated to the guilds of artisans by the Emperor Akbar, although that monarch himself was no bigot in this respect. The consequence of these various influences is that while Govind Devi temple is an architectural composition of no little formal beauty, consisting as it does of a combination of balconies and loggias, of bracketed archways and moulded buttresses, wide eaves and ornamental parapets, all carefully disposed so as to be in perfect accord with one another, there is at the same time an almost complete absence of that quality of humanism, together with a deficiency in that supreme spiritual content which one has learned to expect incorporated in the design of all Hindu temples of the more ortho lox type. In this building more than in any other we see the effect of the imposition of Islamic ideals on those of the Hindus, perpetuated in stone. Even more pronounced is the outcome of this impact on the structural treatment of the interior, which, except for the fact that the entire conception appears to be an anomaly, is a very fine architectural effort of or great dignity and excellent workmanship. For the roof of the mandapa, instead of being the low curved ceiling usual in the temple design, consists of a high vaulted dome formed of intersecting pointed arches, in its structural procedure not unlike what is known as the four-part pointed vaulting of the Gothic style. This system of roofing in the temple is an illustration of the influence of the contemporary construction of the Mughals being copied and adapted from that used in several of the mosques of this period, as for instance in the aisles of the Jami Masjid (c. 1583) at Fatehpar Sikri, the state capital of the Emperor Akbar.”

Of the remaining temples, the temple of Jugal Kishore is the most prominent. Its shrine is octagonal in plan and is attached by one of its sites to a rectangular assembly hall. Around the main eastern entrance there is a considerable amount of carving which has a noticeable Islamic flavour. It may be remarked that the most distinctive portions of several of these temples are the śikharas which in style and shape are unique as they bear little or no resemblance to any other kind of temple spire and hence they may be viewed as an independent evolution, of course on the new later medieval pattern which got impetus from the Mughal architecture. The Hindu śikharas are adapted as minarets. They rise from an octagonal plan and taper into a tall conical tower; for example that of Madan Mohan as much as 65 ft, in height, with a broad band of mouldings outlining each angle. Farther, at intervals throughout their height are similar bands of mouldings placed transversely, so that the surface effect is that of a series of diminishing rectangular panels. Overhanging the whole at the apex is a ponderous finial, the Amalaśilā, a flat circular disc with its outer edge ornamented with a boarder of massive knob-like petals or flutes. In the opinion of Brown this unusual treatment of Śikhara of Brindavan temple has not much to commend it.