The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c23.s1.7

c23.s1.7

The Brāhmaṇs of the village maintain that the temple was originally Jaina, but this is a mistake, as there is not a vestige of Jaina work about it; on the other hand there are hundreds of Brahmanical images, among which are found Brahmā, Varāha, Narasimha, Gaṇapati, Mahiśāsura-mardanī, Śiva and others. It may possibly have been a Vaiṣṇava temple, since Rāma, Sītā and Lakshmaṇa appear over the antechamber door; but, in that case one would hardly expect to find Gaṇapati above a Vaiṣṇava door. As he image has been introduced by the Liṅgāyats, before whose occupation of the temple it may have been, for a time, in the hands of the Jains. There is a large image of a seated Jina and a small standing one of Pārśvanātha just outside the temple at the school house.