SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This article investigates the original design of the ruined spire from Temple 45 at Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh through the detailed analysis of hundreds of fallen architectural fragments that are stacked near the monument. These remains indicate that Temple 45 was a ninth-century Latina temple, a north Indian temple type distinguished by its curved spire, and that it shows anomaly and ingenuity in many aspects of its design and context. The question of how early Indian architects achieved the characteristic curves of Latina superstructures has not yet been answered by contemporary scholarship in away that would allow the fragments to be virtually reassembled into an authentically shaped spire: the proposals are either unconvincing, or they do not contain enough information to complete the task. This paper critiques these accounts, and examines verses pertaining to Latina spires from a particular Vastuśāstra called the Dīpārṇava, turning them into diagrams of temple spires,analysing their proportions and outlines, and comparing them to the measurements taken from Temple 45. It then builds on this information, and proposes a new and more detailed account of Latina spire design than has previously been offered.Finally, this methodology is used to reconstruct an elevation of the spire from Temple 45.