of Saivism. The design of all the great temples of Southern India is always based upon the Kailāsa type, even when Vishnu instead of Siva is worshipped, as in the Vaikuntha Perumāl temple Conjīveram and the Vitthalaswāmi temple at Vijayanagar, with variations dictated by the necessities of the site or other practical considerations. Few of them, however, are built after a complete symmetrical plan, like the Kailāsa at Ellora, for in most cases they are an aggregation of temples and of two or more enclosures; so that, instead of a palace for the King of the Universe, the original temple has grown into a city of the gods—the principle of design being the same as that which is seen in the Sānchī stūpa—to preserve the sanctity of an ancient shrine by enclosing it in another of a similar but more elaborate design, instead of pulling it down and rebuilding it on a larger scale. In this way the magnificent outer gateways, or gopurams, of South Indian temples became the dominant features of South Indian temple architecture instead of the tower of the holy of holies, for each additional enclosure required gopurams proportionate to its size, and many of these stately gopurams vie with the famous Rajput towers of victory in the beauty of their design. The Tanjore temple is one of the few which, like the Kailāsa at Ellora, is an architectural unity, built after a preconceived plan. It was erected about a.d. 1000 by the great Chola Emperor Rājarāja I, to celebrate the victories by which he became paramount ruler of the Dekhan and Southern India, including Ceylon. Here the principal shrine (Pl. XXIII, a) is built on a colossal scale; it is 82 feet square and crowned by a stūpa-tower of thirteen stories 190 feet high.
These cities of the gods in Southern India are especially interesting, because, like the sacred cities of
