SURYA

TEMPLE
HISTORY ASSIGNMENT

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

AR. MEGHA VASHISHTHA AVANTIKA CHAUHAN
 INTRODUCTION
 THE SURYA TEMPLE,MODHERA is the most splendid
example of Solanki Style Architecture.
 It is one of the finest example of Indian temple
architecture of this period.
 According to an inscription, found within its broken
walls, its exact date has been reveled as 1026-27.
 It was built under the rule of Bhima I of the Solanki
Dynasty.
 It is on a site 18 miles south-east of modern Patna.
 In spite of its ruined condition littile imagination is
required to picture this building.
 It was destroyed by the Mehmood of Ghazni.
 It is dedicated to the sun-god surya. This temple
was so designed that the rays of the sun would fall
on the image of surya at the time of the equinoxes.
 The Modhera still retains enough of its structure to
convey the grandeur of its conception.
 Every inch of the edifice, both inside and outside is
magnificently carved with gods and goddesses, birds
and beasts and flowers.
 The inner sanctum, which housed the presiding
diety, faces east.
 THE STRUCTURE

 The temple is confronted with large sacred pool or

the surya kunda.
 The temple is divided into two main sections – the
pillared hall or Sabha Mandapa and the main
temple or Gudha Mandapa
 THE SURYA KUNDA
 ALSO KNOWN AS RAMAKUNDA.
 A MASSIVE RECTANGULAR
STEPPED TANK, FOR ABLUTIONS.
 COMPRISING A SHEET OF WATER
CONTAINED WITHIN A
RECTANGULAR ARRANGMENT OF
PLATFORMS AND TERRACES
INTERSPACED WITH SHRINES OF
VARIOUS SIZES AND SHAPES.
 ON ITS WESTERN SIDE A WIDE
FLIGHT OF STEPS LEADS TO
TORANA.
 THE MAIN TEMPLE
 This building was elevated on a broad terrace
constructed of solid brick faced stone which formed an
imposing courtyard around it.
 The temple is resolved into two separate structures
connected by a narrow passage.
 Consisting of on one hand of an open pillared hall or
“sabha mandapa” and on the other hand an enclosed
rectangular building containing the compartments,the
assembly hall or “gudha mandapa” and the shrine or
“garbha griha”,the axial length of the whole being 145
feet.
Although the two structures comprising the temple differ
from each other in character ,as the one is in the form of
an open hypostyle hall and the other is enclosed within
walls, by the skillful adjustment of their mouldings,
string-courses and horizontal elements generally, the
composition is so well harmonised as to produce the
necessary effect of wholeness.
 On the plan sabha mandapa is based on a square of
nearly 50 feet wide, placed diagonally with the axial
line, its sides being interrupted at regular intervals by
recessed chases.
 The rectangular part of the temple is 80 feet by 50
feet.
 In its design recessed angles are also a distinctive
feature of the exterior.
 The sole entrance is through a pillared portico on the
east, where it connects with the western or rear
doorway of the “sabha mandapa”.
 At the intervals in the sides are window openings, five
in number each a well proportioned aperture and with
its side pillars relieving the wall in an interesting
manner.
 The elevation is composed of the three main divisions
already referred to with the basement or “pitha”
consisting of the conventional range of carved
mouldings, above which is the spacious “mandovara”,
or panelled wall-face, richly embellished with figure
sculpture, each image enshrined in a niche.
 The super structure of this building has completely
disappeared, but it comprised of the traditional
arrangment of a low pyramidal roof over the front
portion, and a tall turreted shikhara over the shrine.
 The interior of this enclosed portion is divided equally
into two compartments, each consisting of a square of
25 feet side.
 The front or the eastern being the “gudha mandapa”,
or assembly hall, containing 8 columns around a central
octagonal nave, above which is highly ornamental
ceiling.
 Leading out of this compartment, through a shallow four
pillared vestibule, is a shrine chamber - a square cell
with a processional passage around it.
 The aesthetic sense of modhera temple respons to the
elegance of its treatment and its propotional as a whole.
 Carved decoration is here sparsely distributed, most of
it being concentrated on the entrance to the cella.
 SABHA MANDAPA
 Planned in usual gujarati
style around an octagonal
pillared spaces.
 Sloping seats and dwarf
columns are set in
rectangular offsets around
its peripheri.
 The shafts of each of its
columns are exquisitely
embroided with scrolls of
ornamentation, interspaced
with sculptures of gods and
godesses.
 The pillars are on the peripheri of the central octagonal
spaces are locked together by delicately carved
interlinked sinuous brackets aptly referred to as “flying
toranas”.
 On plan “sabha manadapa” is placed on a square of 50
feet wide placed diagonally with axial line its sides being
interupted at regular intervals by recessed chases.
 There are pillared entrances with cusped archways at
each of the four corners and a smaller piillar within each
recessed angle.
 The interior of hall is composed
of two aisles of pillars arranged
along the diagonals of its
square plans, thus producing a
cruciform effect.
 By omitting the central pillars
at the junction of these cross
aisles, the octagonal space of
the nave opens out in the
middle of the hall and above
this rises the domed ceiling,
elevated higher than the aisles
by the means of an attic storey.
 As to dimensions the pillars are
13 feet high, rim of the dome is
17 feet with its centre 23 feet
from the floor level.
Thank
You