The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c46.3

c46.3

At Baḷagāmve, whose temples have been described in previous pages, is a very interesting column in the middle of the village. It stands upon a raised mound, and reaches a height of over thirty feet, although the breadth of the shaft measures no more than fifteen inches. The top is finished off with a spreading octagonal moulded capital, which is surmounted by a broad abacus or slab. Upon this stands a statue of the fabulous two-headed bird, the *gaṇḍa-bhēruṇḍa*, supposed to have been the mortal enemy of elephants and to have fed upon their flesh. The image here takes the form of a human being, standing upright, with two birds' heads looking opposite ways like the Russian eagle. It is eating or tearing something which it holds in its hands. An inscription on the base of the column records its erection and tells us that in *Śaka* 969 (A.D. 1047) the *mahāmaṇḍalēśvara*, Chāmuṇḍa Rāyarasa (of the Kadambas of Banavasi) erected before the god Jagadēkamallēśvara this *gaṇḍa-bhēruṇḍa stambha*, and, having washed the feet of the *āchārya* Anantaśiva, made a grant of land for the god Bhēruṇḍēśvara.¹ It does not follow that the column had any more connection with the temple than that it stood before it. The people of the village say it was set up to scare wild elephants away from their crops, and especially the sugarcane fields (Figs. 41 and 32).