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The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c11.s2: The Temple of Pāpanātha

The Chālukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c11.s2

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The Temple of Pāpanātha

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The temple of Pāpanātha stands at the south-east corner of the village of Paṭṭadakal, and serves the purpose of a village wall so far as it goes. It is in disuse and is utterly neglected, except that it has been used as a byre, cattle being tethered within and all along its walls, without, on the village side. It is a very ornate temple, with an almost complete tower in the northern style; and, judging from the character of the letters of a few short inscriptions upon it, it cannot be later than that of Virūpāksha. It is probably earlier, and was superseded as the chief temple here by that of Virūpāksha. It faces east.

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Though, at first sight, this temple looks very different to Virūpāksha, it will be found that the difference is almost entirely confined to its tower. The plan is but a modification of that of its neighbour. The space between the sixteen-pillared hall of Virūpāksha and its shrine, including the intermediate two pillars, is, in this one, amplified into a small inner hall with four pillars. This is the only difference of any account, a difference which might occur between any two purely Dravidian temples; in fact, it will be found to be a nearer approach to the plan of Kailāsanātha at Conjevaram than Virūpāksha.¹ The walls, outside, are practically the same as in Virūpāksha, a variation in the arrangement of the sculpture panels alone being made. The basement mouldings are the same in both, and so are the cornices and the mouldings above them. A Dravidian tower in place of the present one would not look at all strange. It is, therefore, unnecessary to describe these temples with northern spires, as found in these districts, as a class apart from the others (Plates XLIX, L and LIII).

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¹ Compare with the plan of Kailāsanātha as given in the *History of Indian and Eastern Architecture*, Vol. I, p. 358.

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Upon the building are inscribed the names of many of the sculptures, and high up on the east face, on the south side of the door, is an inscription, in characters which Dr. Fleet says are not much, if at all, earlier than the seventh century, in praise of a certain Chaṭṭara Revadi-Ovajja, who is said to have "made the southern country," *i.e.*, was the builder of the temples of the southern country, and hence, by inference, the builder of this. He belonged to the same guild to which the builder of Lokeśvara was attached. In Fergusson's *Indian and Eastern Architecture*, as revised by Dr. Burgess, the age is put down as, approximately, A.D. 700. It is hardly likely that three great costly temples would have been in hand in one place at nearly the same time. A.D. 650 as the latest possible date, therefore, would be, perhaps, as near the mark as we can get with present data.

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When we come to the question of the original dedication of the temple we are faced with just as much uncertainty. It was probably not Śaiva, that is, devoted to the worship of the *linga*, for there is no sign, in front, of a pavilion for a *Nandi*, the present one being placed, very clumsily, inside the great hall. The *aṣṭadikpāla* ceiling, in the centre of the hall,¹ has Vishnu reclining upon Śesha as its central panel instead of the *tāṇḍava* of Śiva which is usual in such ceilings found in Śaiva temples. The workmanship of this one looks quite as old as the temple itself, and is not an after addition as appears to have been the case with that in the temple of Kont-Guḍi at Aihole already described. Garuḍa presides over the shrine door, while, above him, on the face of the beam, is Gaja-Lakshmī. There is a *dvarapāla*, four-armed, on either side of the shrine door, wearing a jewelled headdress. In the upper left hand of the south figure is a *triśūla*, but it has been made of plaster, evidently after the temple was converted to Śaiva worship. In the shrine walls, within the *pradakshina* passage, are three niches, one on each face. In the south niche is an image of Śiva, in the north Vishnu, but in the back or west, the most important, an image of Sūrya. Over the doorway, between the two halls, is Garuḍa again. The dedicatory block over the outer door is like that on the temple just outside the southwest gate of the village of Aihole, on the bank of the stream—two *makara* heads looking opposite ways and joined in the centre by a lozenge or brooch ornament—but immediately above it is a *devī*.

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¹ For a description of one of these ceilings see page 150.

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Fig. 19.—Interior of the temple of Pāpanātha, Paṭṭadakal.

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Taking everything into consideration, and in spite of the *tāṇḍava* sculpture on the face of the tower, it seems impossible to come to any other conclusion than that the temple was, originally, Vaishṇava, like the Durga temple at Aihole, and possibly dedicated to Sūrya.

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As is usual in all these old temples, Vaiṣṇava and Śaiva sculptures are equally mixed. Amongst the groups in the ceiling panels, besides those just noted, are the *tāṇḍava* and Śeṣa, and in the hall are the loose images of Gaṇapati and Mahiṣāsura-Mardanī, which may not be original. The exterior walls are fretted with ornamental filigree, and are divided up into rows of little pillared niches containing small images. The spaces between these niches are also used for similar little groups and some of those beautiful perforated stone windows which are found in Virūpāksha. The photograph shows these better than any amount of description (Plate L). Some of these groups represent scenes from the Rāmāyaṇa, many of which are labelled in characters which may be as old as the sixth century.¹ Amongst the names are Rāman, Site, Site, Lakkaṇa, Jaṭayu, Sugrivan, Bāli, Aṅgajan, Ravaṇan, Suppanaki, Kara-Dusaṇan, Bhīmasēna, Śri-Baladēva, Naḷan, Vibhīshaṇan, and Kumbhaṛṇan. Besides these are images of Śiva in various attitudes, with and without Pārvatī, Rāvaṇa under Kailāsa, Viṣṇu, Mahiṣāsura-mardanī, the *tāṇḍava*, Gaṇapati, Narasimha, Varāha, the Vāmana *avatāra*, Varuṇa, and Kṛiṣṇa, upholding Govardhana. In the ceiling of the porch is the *tāṇḍava* group.

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¹ *Indian Antiquary*, X, 170.

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Fig. 20.—Pillars in the porch of the temple of Pāpanātha, Paṭṭadakal.

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The beams, between the ceiling panels of the larger hall, are most exquisitely carved and decorated in hanging arabesque, it being some of the richest work of its kind in western India (Plate LIII). The brackets under the ends of them are fashioned as *makara's* heads, from whose jaws issue rampant lions connecting them with the soffits of the beams. On the faces of each pilaster are pairs of figures—men and women—in almost full relief. A continuous frieze of little figures, bearing up loops of a running festoon, as is found in early Buddhist ornament, runs along the tops of the walls of the hall; and, opposite this, over the pillars, is a frieze of pairs of flying figures.

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The pillars of the outer hall are of a different type to those found in Virūpāksha, but they are very squat and clumsy looking. They have moulded bases, sixteen-sided shafts and clumsily-shaped cushion capitals. Two-thirds up the shaft is a great square heavy block left rough for carving. The pillars of the porch are somewhat after the style of the Durga temple at Aihoḷe (Figs. 20 and 21).

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