The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c31.s1.2

c31.s1.2

The plan of the shrine is quite unlike that of any other temple met with in these districts. Instead of having a single entrance from the hall, it has four entrances, one on each of its four sides, each of which is provided with its own antechamber (Plate CXXV). On examining the little dedicatory images on the blocks above the doorways, it is seen that two of them are the usual Gaja-Lakshmī, the other two being Sarasvatī. This last image, placed above a shrine doorway, is very unusual, and I know of no other instance, save the case of one of the shrines in the temple at Degāmve in the Belgāum district. Sarasvatī is the consort of Brahmā, and coupling this fact with the arrangement of the four doors into the shrine, it seems possible that we have here an old temple originally dedicated to Brahmā, the four-faced deity, one of whose faces looks each way. If such an image occupied this shrine one face would look out through each doorway. In the shrine is now the ubiquitous *liṅga*, but in the west antechamber, placed upon a low pedestal on the floor, is a four-faced head which the villagers call *pañchānana* (the five-faced Śiva) notwithstanding the fact that there are only four faces.¹ It certainly looks more like a head of an image of Brahmā, and possibly of the image that once occupied the shrine. It has been asserted that Brahmā is never worshipped as the principal deity in a temple, but this is wrong, for there is the celebrated temple dedicated to his worship at Pushkar near Ajmer, and another old one at Kheḍ-Brahmā in Idar territory,² both in full use. Several old temples, originally dedicated to his worship, have lately been found in various parts of Rājputānā and Kāṭhiāwāḍ.³ In the Dhārwār district, alone, grants are still given to at least eight different modern temples for the worship of Brahmā.