The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c11.s1.3

c11.s1.3

The oldest of these is the temple of Saṅgamēśvara, and from the inscriptions we find that, under the name of Vijayēśvara, it was built by Vijayāditya-Satyāśraya (A.D. 696—733). About a hundred yards south of this is the largest temple in the village, that of Virūpāksha or Lōkēśvara as it was at first called. The inscriptions tell us that this temple was built by Lōkamahādēvī, the senior queen of Vikramāditya II., the son of Vijayāditya, and that it was placed to the south of the temple of Vijayēśvara. We are also informed that the junior queen, Trailōkyamahādēvī, a sister of that queen, also built a temple to the north of Lōkēśvara, which is easily identified with the temple now known as that of Mallikārjuna, whose courtyard touches that of Virūpāksha at its north-west corner. The inscription which gives us this information about the relative positions of these three temples is inscribed upon a great column, called the Lakshmī-kambha, which stands upon the north side of Virūpāksha and in front of Mallikārjuna, but is now embedded within the house of a pūjārī, or temple attendant, through the roof of which the top of the column projects. It tells us that the column itself was set up in the middle between these three shrines, just where we find it.² It was erected by a sculptor, named Subhadēva, for an āchārya named Jñānaśiva who had come from Mṛigathanikāhāra-vishaya on the north bank of the Ganges, in A.D. 754, during the reign of Kirtivarman II. and that it carried the emblem of the triśūla just as the great columns at Kailāsa at Ēlūrā do.¹