Temples built between the 7th and 14th centuries are amongst the finest achievements in world art, growing loftier and progressively more complex. The increasing height and number of walls made greater area available for sculpture, which was a vehicle for richly symbolic narrative. Iconography developed its own vibrant syntax, keeping pace with the poetry of the court and the Bhakti saints. The expression of devotion aside, temples were an aesthetic statement about power: Victorious kings built temples. Charters and inscriptions at temples showed their ownership and upkeep of vast tracts of agricultural land. Inscriptions and sculptures also revealed the identities of artists or the guilds they worked in.