The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c16: Hāvēri

The Chālukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c16

Language: English

c16.s1 The Temple of Siddhēśvara — 15 parts

Hāvēri

The Temple of Siddhēśvara

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OF the same style as the temple of Muktēśvara at Chaudadāmpur are the temples of Siddhēśvara at Hāvēri, Sōmēśvara at Haraḷhaḷḷi, three miles north of Chaudadāmpur, and the temple of Siddharāmēśvara at Nīralgi, thirteen miles north-west of Bankāpūr, all in the Dhārwār district.

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Like the temples at Chaudadāmpur and Nīralgi, this one had lost its original finial and has had a smaller one put up in its stead. The ground has so silted up around the building that its basement is buried some two feet below the surface, and it is now necessary to descend one or two steps to enter the *maṇḍapa*. Instead of facing east as is the general rule with Chālukyan temples, which are set east and west, this one faces the west (Plates LXXIV—LXXXIII).

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It is difficult to decide to which deity the temple was originally dedicated from the indications about it, for all the principal images of gods and goddesses that adorned the exterior have been very carefully chipped away. In front of the spire, above the hall roof is a well-carved figure of Śiva. It is, however, on a separate stone from the encircling arch and it looks as if the original figure had been chipped away and this one put in its place. Amongst some very small figures on the florid ornament, under the little *kīrtimukhas*, on the back or east wall, is Sūrya. It is possible that the temple was first built as a Vaiṣṇava shrine, which may have been used, for a time, by the Jains, and which would account for the removal of the images. Subsequently it came into the hands of the Liṅgāyats who still use it.

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In the temple, standing against the wall, on either side of the antechamber door, are some loose images, among them being a slab bearing a male and female *Nāga* with their tail extremities intertwined, which is a very fine piece of sculpture; an image of a female, probably of Pārvatī, another of Śiva and Pārvatī, and, in a niche, a curious seated male figure holding in each of its two lower hands a *liṅga*. It has six hands. In his middle left he holds a *chakra* or quoit.

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Over the antechamber door are Brahmā, Śiva and Viṣṇu, Śiva being in the centre. On Brahmā's right is Gaṇeśa, whilst on Viṣṇu's left is Kārtikeya. The makaras, with their arabesque tails, form the usual frame about them. On each side of the antechamber door is a panel of perforated screenwork. There is no dedicatory block over this doorway; and, though the shrine doorway has the block, there is no image upon it. There are no human figures about these doorways; they are comparatively plain. Within the shrine a liṅga has been installed.

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In one of the corner ceiling panels of the hall is what, at first sight, looks like an aṣṭadikpāla ceiling. But, instead of the regents surrounding Śiva, who occupies the central panel as Bhairava, are found the saptamātṛ or ‘Seven Mothers’ in the other eight panels, one of them, Brahmī, being repeated twice. In one of the small temples at the Gokak Falls is a similar ceiling, but in that case the centre figure is Mahākālī instead of Śiva; and, Gaṇapati occupies one of the surrounding panels, thus obviating the necessity of repeating one of the goddesses.

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Though the aṣṭadikpālas are not found in the ceiling here, they are to be seen upon a short square column, 4' 4" in height, where they are depicted upon four panels at the top, while the four gods, Śiva, Viṣṇu, Sūrya and Brahmā fill four panels below, one in each (Plate LXXXIII).

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In the temple are several inscriptions, some of which are inscribed on the pillars, recording grants to the god for the purpose of worship, but they are mostly late, being dated in the years A.D. 1228, 1260, 1269 and 1301. But a slab, outside the temple, recording a grant, is of 1108. On a beam, inside is an earlier one dated, if read correctly, in 1087, of the second year of Vira-Ballāḷa's reign (Śilāhāra). There is another inscription in the village dated in A.D. 1067, recording the grant of the village of Hāvēri to four hundred Brāhmaṇs, but it does not mention the temple.

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Fig. 27.—Bust from the temple of Siddhēśvara, Hāvēri.

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Standing at right angles to this temple is another smaller one dedicated to Narasimha. Like many Vaiṣṇava temples it stands north and south and faces north. Set up in the shrine is a large image of Narasimha, while a similar image adorns the architrave above the entrance to the antechamber, flanked on either side by Viṣṇu and Garuḍa. On the block above the shrine door is Gaja-Lakṣmī.

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In niches within the temple are a number of loose sculptures. They are, a female bust (Fig. 27), Mahiṣāsura-mardanī, a fine image of Sūrya, and an ordinary snake stone. Sūrya is represented barefoot, which is very unusual, since his high Persian boots are, as a rule, a distinguishing feature in his image. But this seems to shew the attempts made in later images to bring it into line with the conventional types of Hindu images. In this case he has the unorthodox addition of a seven-hooded Nāga canopying his head.

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Built into the wall of a step-well, out in front of the main temple, is a stone slab bearing a very good representation of the *saptamātṛ* or "Seven Mothers" (Fig. 28).

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Fig. 28.—The *Saptamātṛ*, from Hāvēri.

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These are the female counterparts of certain of the gods, and each is known by her cognizance below her. On most of these slabs each goddess holds a child on her lap to denote motherhood, but they are absent on this; and they are generally flanked by Śiva on one side and Gaṇapati on the other. Next to Śiva, in this case, is Brahmī or Brahmāṇī, the female counterpart of Brahmā, below her being Brahmā's vehicle, the goose. Next is Mahēśvarī, Śiva's counterpart, with his bull *Nandi*, beside whom is Vaiṣṇavī seated over Garuḍa. After her come Kaumārī, counterpart of Kārtikēya, with his peacock; Varāhī with a buffalo instead of the boar; Indrāṇī or Aindrī with the elephant, and, lastly, Chāmuṇḍā with a dog, but sometimes a dead body. This last "mother" is shown as a skeleton with long pendent breasts. Each goddess has four arms, and in their hands they carry symbols belonging to the gods they represent. The arrangement is not always the same.¹

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¹ These "mothers" have been connected with the Pleiades, the seven bright stars in Ursa Major, otherwise the wives of the Rishes, who, in one account, were the mothers, collectively, of Kārtikēya, and in another his wet-nurses. Hence his names of Ṣaṇmātura and Sasthimātkiya.