The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c28.s1: The Temple of Dakshina-Kēdārēśvara
The Chālukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c28.s1
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The Temple of Dakshina-Kēdārēśvara
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B AḶAGĀMVE is a small village in Maisur territory, fourteen miles south-west of Hirē-Kerūr in the Dhārwār district. At one time it was a town of considerable importance in the Hoysaḷa kingdom, and was adorned with many fine buildings of that period. At present the village is composed of mud and thatched huts, interspersed with a few houses of a better kind. The surrounding country is very pretty and quite tropical. Tanks, lakes and ponds abound, which are thickly covered with the lotus and other water plants, and are frequented by great numbers of wild fowl. Plantations of sugarcane, betel-nut, *pān*, spices and other plants make it a very pleasant spot to camp in, especially in the hot weather. Scattered about in the fields and through the village are heaps of ruins, fallen columns, statues, inscription slabs, and scores of miscellaneous objects, which, with the ruins of its many temples, tell the story of former opulence and glory (Plates CXII—CXV).
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The chief temple, and the best preserved of those now standing, is that of Kēdārēśvara situated on the bank of a large tank to the south of the village. Like the one at Raṭṭehaḷḷi—being, in fact, a twin building to it—it has three shrines around a common hall, in advance of which is the larger open hall. Like the last, too, this has the great sculpture of the Hoysaḷa king and the lion repeated upon the towers of two of the shrines. The corresponding sculpture for the third tower, the north one, was never put up, and still lies in an unfinished state in the courtyard below.
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This animated group seems to be the representation of a scene taken from the following legend told in connection with an early chief of the Hoysaḷa family of Dvārasamudra in Maisur. It is thus related in one of the old inscriptions at Gadag¹: “For when, in the city of Śaśakapura, with the words ‘Slay O Sala,’ he was commanded by a certain ascetic to destroy a tiger that had come to devour him in the performance of his religious rites, he slew it and acquired the name of Hoysaḷa. From that time forth the name Hoysaḷa was attached to his race, and the emblem on its banner, causing fear to its foes, was a tiger.”
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¹ *Indian Antiquary*, II, 301
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Upon the great arched frontispiece of the main tower, beneath the Hoysaḷa group, is some superb arabesque carving in very bold relief (Plates CXIII and CXIV). The central image, which occupied the niche, within the arch, has gone, if, indeed, it had ever been put up, and, now, a dilapidated tiled roof, erected above the leaking maṇḍapa roof, abuts, most mercilessly, against the beautiful sculpture. Around the soffit of the arched niche, over the image, are aṣṭadikpālas, several of which have been broken away. The work around the arch, and especially the beautiful pendant falling from the mouth of the kīrtimukha mask are splendid specimens of the sculptor's art. The free and rich profusion of florid scrolls, curling boldly away from the block on which it is carved, looks more like a prolific crop of some lovely acanthus-like plant which, in the distant past, had covered the walls and had become petrified there. The sculptor knew, too, full well, the value of high relief and deep shadows when placing these objects high above the ground and distant from the observer. And yet there is much fine detail that is lost to the observer upon the ground. Still there is no weakness about this magnificently-cut kīrtimukha mask; on the contrary, it is remarkably strong—strong in its broad treatment, strong in its splendid outline, and strong in its vigorous lights and shadows
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From out of the depths of its cavernous jaws issue two makaras, one on either side, between which hangs the lovely pendant or lace-like jabot. The great protuding eyeballs, which are so much in keeping with the huge jaws, show great strength and decision of outline. The sharp lower edge of the nostril gives, at once, a well-defined shadow beneath it with no weak half-tones. There is a repetition of this formidable face in that of the lion above, for it is a lion and not a tiger, as its ample mane shows. There can be little doubt that the lion's face was the original of the grotesque kīrtimukha.
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The ceiling of the open hall has, in its central compartment, a great aṣṭadikpāla panel, similar to that in the temple at Kundgol, and the slab at Ganjigaṭṭi (Plate CLIX), but the figures and carving generally are more stiff, though more detail is introduced. The rest of the temple is much like those at Chaudadāmpur and Hāveri, already described, and there is nothing more of particular interest about it.
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Near the temple, in the yard, are nineteen inscription slabs, one of which records a grant in A.D. 1075 of a village to the Vaiṣṇava temple of Narasimhadēva at Baḷigāve in the time of Sōmēśvaradēva II.¹
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¹ Indian Antiquary, IV, 208