Udgama

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Udgama decorative panels on Teli-ka-Mandir in Gwalior ; they can be found both above wall niches, where they imitate the motif of a Shikhara tower, and in the slightly curved roof area. Ribbed amalaka stones can be found in several places on the udgamas . The decorative panel above the side portal is much flatter and designed exclusively with chandrasalas arranged next to and one above the other .

As Udgamas ( Sanskrit : उद्गम = the "ascending", the "sprouting") in the classic be Indian architecture vertical decorative fields above wall niches or Shikhara referred -Türmen.

history

Wall or pillar niches with figurative representations were already used as decorative elements in Indian cave temples; However , decorative crowns were only placed on these in rare cases (e.g. Badami , Cave II or Ellora , Cave XVII). Horseshoe-shaped kudu or chandrasala motifs were often used for these essays , as they appear - in large dimensions - as windows above the entrance portals of some Buddhist Chaitya halls ( Karli , Ellora, Ajanta, etc.).

The first free-standing temple structures in India ( Gupta temple ) had neither an outer wall structure nor niches or tower structures. It was not until the Dashavatara temple in Deogarh (6th century) that this changed, but the wall niches remained without a crown. However, decorative fields above the wall niches are regularly found in the Pratihara temples - z. B. the 'gorge temples ' of Naresar (around 700–725), the Ramesvara Mahadeva Temple in Amrol (around 750), the Teli-ka Mandir in Gwalior (around 770) and the Maladevi Temple in Gyaraspur (approx. 875). They can also be found at the Chandella temples of Khajuraho ( Lakshmana temple (around 950) and Kandariya Mahadeva temple (around 1025) and others).

decor

The decor of the Udgamas is extremely small and regularly consists of horseshoe-shaped curved chandrasalas , which - in a potentially infinite manner - are arranged next to and on top of one another and taper towards the top to a pyramid-shaped tip. There are no figurative motifs in the sometimes tiny niches - on the other hand, abstract, vegetable patterns are integrated; In the roof area, horizontally lying stones ( amalaka s and others) are regularly inserted into the udgama decor.

The figureless and potentially infinite decor of the udgamas was one of the possible suggestions for the jalis of the Mughal period, which were designed according to the same principles .

literature

  • KV Soundara Rajan: Cave Temples of the Deccan. Archaeological Survey of India , New Delhi 1981
  • Michael W. Meister u. a. (Ed.): Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture. North India - Foundations of North Indian Style. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1988.

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