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ARCHITECTURE SCULPTURE AND PAINTING
...Fortunately, there is still at Tigōwā an old temple of the Gupta age in a good state of
preservation. It possesses all the common characteristics of the early Gupta temples1 noticed
at Sāñchī and Ēraṇ and may therefore be referred to the middle of the fifth century A.C.
Tigōwā lies about 65 miles from Bāndhōgaḍh, which was probably the capital of the
Pāṇḍavavaṁśī kings of Mēkalā. The temple may have been erected during the time of the
Pāṇḍavavaṁśī king Bharatabala, who flourished in circa 450 A.C. As already shown2,
he was a feudatory of the Vākāṭaka king Narēndrasēna. The temple at Tigōwā may therefore be supposed to represent the temple architecture and sculpture of the Vākāṭaka age.3
...
This temple4 is now dedicated to the goddess Kaṅkālī. It measures 12 ft. 9 in. length
and breadth and has a flat roof. In front there is a portico supported on four pillars. The
middle intercolumniation is 2 ft. 9 in., while that on either side is only 2 ft. 6 in. Such
a difference is noticed in the porticos of the early temples at Sāñchī, Udayagiri and Ēraṇ,
and is, therefore, supposed to be ‘one of the minor marks of the Gupta style’. All the four
pillars are exactly of the same type with a slight difference in their capitals. Each has a
plain square base. Above this it has an octagonal portion which is beautifully decorated
with lotus and other designs. The shaft then becomes sixteen-sided and thereafter circular.
This is surmounted by a fluted bell. From each corner of the square portion above the
bell a small foliated turnover hangs gracefully down. The square capital of each pillar
is decorated with two chaitya-window bosses, having the head of a man or a lion peeping
through them. The upper portion of the capital shows two couchant lions back to back
with some tree like the mango or the palm between them. The lions at the corners of
two adjacent sides have a common face. Similar capitals are noticed in the case of the
pillars of the Gupta temple at Ēraṇ.
...
The garbhagṛiha of this temple measures 8 ft. by 71/2 ft. Its entrance door is decorated
with the designs of the custard-apple. Immediately above the door-frame there is a line of
7 square bosses, which, through used for decoration here, originally represented the ends
of the beams of a wooden structure. There is another line of thirteen square bosses just
below the roof. The architrave over the door frame is extended beyond the jambs of the two
sides, below which appear the panels of the river-goddesses, the Gaṅgā on the left and
the Yamunā on the right. The Gaṅgā5 is shown in the tribhaṅga posture, standing on a
crocodile which is swallowing a human being.. On her right is standing a female attendant
with some offerings which the goddess is touching with her right hand in token of acceptance.
On her left there is a male chowri-bearer. In her left hand the goddess has fruit of the
custard-apple tree which has spread its branches over her head.
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1 These are thus stated by Cunningham:-
(i) a flat roof without a spire; (ii) prolongation of the
door-lintel beyond the jambs;
(iii) statues of the Gaṅgā and Yamunā guarding the entrance door;
(iv) pillars with massive capitals, ornamented with two lions back to back with a tree between them;
(v) continuation of the architrave of the portico as a moulding all round the building etc. C.A.S.I. Vol.
IX, pp. 42-43.
2 Above, p. xxvi.
3 In later times the territory round Tigōwā was included in the dominion of the Parivrājaka kings.
This is indicated by the Bētul plates of Saṅkshōbha dated in the Gupta year 199 (158 A.C.), which
record the grant of two villages in the vishaya of Tripurī (modern Tēwar near Jabalpur). There is no
reason to suppose that the Parivrājakas had extended their authority so far to the south as early as
450 A.C., to which date the Tigōwā temple may be referred on the evidence of its architecture. In
this earlier age the country was probably included in the dominion of the Pāṇḍavavaṁśīs of Mēkalā,
who were feudatories of the Vākāṭakas.
4 See Plate E.
5 See Plate F.
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