Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c21.8

c21.8

The next stage in the development of the building art in these parts may be studied in the temples of Pattadakal, the third of the Chalukyan capital seats. Pattadakal is distant ten miles from Badami, and, on the assumption that the transfer of the capital took place after the capture of the town in A.D 642, it seems fairly certain the earlier temples on this site were executed during the last half of the seventh century. But the Chalukyan dynasty reached the height of its power under the kings Vijayaditya (696-733) and Vikramaditya II (733-46), so that the actual meridian of the style at Pattadakal was attained in the first half of the eighth century. At Pattadakal, temples of no mean order, and in both styles of architecture are found side by side, a phenomenon which would be almost equivalent in mediaeval Europe to Gothic and Renaissance churches being built in juxtaposition and at the same time. Moreover certain of these temples which are in one style, contain architectural details belonging to the other contrasting style, implying that the buildings represented a stage of evolution before the conventions of both had been definitely established. There are ten temples of consequence at Pattadakal, four of which are in the Indo-Aryan or northern style, and six in the Dravidian or southern, as follows:—