The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c11.s2.5

c11.s2.5

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*.