Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c28.6

c28.6

There is reason to believe that this style of temple architecture approached the eastern region from its southern extremity, spreading northward to form the main development in Orissa. Although the small series at Mukhalingam may not comprise the earliest examples, that the beginning was made in this locality is not unlikely. It has already been shown that a type of temple in a primitive Indo-Aryan style had begun to appear as far south as in the territory of the Chalukyans as early as the sixth century A.D., implying that it may have originated in that quarter. (Plate XLVI, Fig. 1). That there can have been any direct connection between the early Chalukyan structures on the south-west, and the temples of Ganjam on the east is somewhat improbable, but the fact remains that certain architectural affinities are observable which suggest a linking up of the temple design in these two divergent places. If such a correlation is admitted, it may be traced to the political contact which no doubt existed between the Ganga kings of western India on the one hand, and the Ganga dynasty of Kalinganagara, now the modern Mukhalingam, on the other. It was from their capital in Ganjam that the country of Kalinga, at present called Orissa, was administered by the Eastern Gangas from about A.D. 600 By some such means the cultural activities of the Early Chalukyans may have been conveyed to this region on the east, where, beginning from the eighth century certain architectural forms appear, which bear a resemblance to those produced slightly earlier at Aihole and Pattadakal. (Chapters XI and XIV).