|
Temples on the gorge THE road that moves from Bundi to Chittorgarh passes by the Menal temple complex very close. Once the temple complex was a safe retreat for great kings. When it rains, the water flows over the granite rocks and plunges into a gorge 100 feet below into a pool and then proceeds onwards.
|
One enters through a triple-storey
wall-gate (resembling a Buddhist vihar, as we see in the Panch
Mahal of Fatehpur Sikri) fixed in a conspicuously high fort-like wall
that surrounds the complex. As a big gate-edifice, it seems to have a
conceptual similarity to the gopuram of the south.
One can see the free-standing, toran
door-frames for festivities like Gangaur. The conical tendency of the
finial of Central Indian lineage is a reminder that the temples can be
studied fruitfully as an illustration—how different schools can
produce one balanced structure.
|