The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c48: Miscellaneous Objects

The Chālukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c48

Language: English

Miscellaneous Objects

Adarguñchi Image

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A T the village of Adarguñchi, about four miles south of Hubli, is a solitary seated image of a *jina*, rather larger than life-size, which the villagers call Dodappā. There is a legend connected with it which runs as follows: In olden times, when Baṅkāpur was a garrisoned fort, a certain man, Dodappā, was head doorkeeper there. He had a sweetheart at a distant village whom he was in the habit of visiting every night after closing the gates of the fort, but it was necessary for him to get back again before sunrise to open them again. On one occasion he overstayed his time, and as he was returning the sun rose. It found him at the village of Adarguñchi where he was forthwith turned into stone. And here he still sits ever looking wistfully towards Baṅkāpur.

Ganjigatti Ceiling

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There is at the village of Ganjigatti, three miles north of Siggāon, in the Dhārwār District, a great ceiling slab, nearly eight feet square, which, like the central ceiling in the great hall of the temple at Kundgol, is carved with images of the *aṣṭadikpālas*. It is in a much better state of preservation than that one. It lies against a platform in the open air at the village shrine, but is said to have been brought from the ruins of a temple at Karajgi (Plate CLIX). The whole slab, which is a single stone, is divided into nine compartments by two cross ribs each way, which are ornamented with bosses at their intersections, and scrollwork down the centres of each. The central panel shows Śiva in his Bhairava or terrible form, dancing upon a prostrate figure, and holding up the elephant hide behind him. Below him, that is, occupying the eastern compartment when the ceiling was in position, is Indra, the guardian of the east, the west is presided over by Varuṇa, the god of the waters, seated upon his *makara*. On the north rides Kuvera, the god of riches, upon his horse, while, on the south, is Yama the god of death and Hades, seated upon his buffalo. The north-east, south-east, south-west, and north-west are held, respectively, by Iśa (Śiva) on the bull, Agni, the god of fire on the ram, Nirṛiti, who represents decay or destruction, seated on the shoulders of a man, and Vāyu, the god of the winds, upon a deer. The carving of this slab has been executed with the greatest care, and the figures stand out in high relief.

Narsapur Windows

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In the jungles, near the small village of Narsapur, just across the Maisur border from the Dhārwār District, and about four miles south of Chik-Kerur, are the ruins of several old temples, at one of which—Sōmēśvara—are two fine perforated windows, one on either side of the entrance to the hall (Plate CLVIII). They are each six feet nine inches high by four feet broad, and are divided into seven horizontal bands of bas-reliefs separated from one another by long narrow openings to admit the light. Placed along these narrow slits, at intervals, are small medallions or studs, each containing a little figure of a man, an elephant, a lion or a bird. It is a pretty little device to break the continuity of these dark lines and connect the bands. The scenes portrayed upon the bands are from the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata. The more damaged one has reference to the former, while that illustrating the incidents from the latter is, or was, intact some few years ago. On comparing these with the sculptures on the pillars at Paṭṭadakal many of the figures may be easily recognised. This is easier in the case of the Rāmāyaṇa sculptures, although they are so much damaged, since many of the persons have some distinctive feature or form. There is Rāvaṇa with his many heads and arms; the deer, and hence Rāma who is following it; the old hag, the sister of Rāvaṇa, and Rāvaṇa himself as an ascetic. The monkey hosts are seen carrying the rocks to build the bridge. But on the Mahābhārata bands, though better preserved, there is little to distinguish the one hero from the other. The giant Bhīma is shown killing the elephant and all those seated upon it. The hand-to-hand combats between Bhishma and Arjuna, and that between Bhīma and Salya are shown in the second and fifth bands.

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The damage to the Rāmāyaṇa window is said to have been caused by fire, but it is likely it was a faulty slab to begin with.

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The four fine slabs, built into the porch of the house which was occupied by the Agent of the Southern Maratha Railway at Dhārwār, have been noticed and described in the account of the old temples at Aihole.

Image from Amīnbhāvi

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Fig. 43 shows a very fine slab which was found in a Jaina temple at Amīnbhāvi, a village about six miles to the north by east of Dhārwār. It represents a Digambara *jina*, nude as all their images are. Above him are twenty-one small *jinas*, which, with the two beside him, under snake hoods, and himself, make up twenty-four, the number of the *jinas* or *tīrthankaras*; but two of these are of one, Pārśvanātha, with his serpent hoods. It will be noticed that the little fat male figure, down to the right of the big image, is the same as we found occupying the shrine in the Jaina temple near the temple of Virūpāksha at Aihole.

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Fig. 43.—Jaina image from Amīnbhāvi.

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the *Gesta Romanorum*, the *Legenda Aurea*, and the *Speculum Historiale* of Vincent of Beauvais. These were the books that fed the imagination of the Middle Ages, and they were the books that the Church, in its wisdom, provided for the instruction of the faithful. They were not history in the modern sense of the word; they were moral tales, designed to illustrate the power of God and the vanity of the world.

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But even in these works, we can see the beginnings of a more critical spirit. The *Gesta Romanorum*, for instance, contains stories that are clearly derived from classical sources, and the *Legenda Aurea* is full of accounts of the lives of the saints that are based on earlier, more reliable records. The Church was not entirely indifferent to the truth; it was simply that its conception of truth was different from our own. It was a truth that was not to be found in the dusty archives of the past, but in the living experience of the present.

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It is in this context that we must understand the work of the great chroniclers of the Middle Ages, such as Matthew Paris and William of Malmesbury. They were not merely recording events; they were interpreting them in the light of the Christian faith. They saw the hand of God in every event, and they sought to show how the history of the world was, in reality, the history of the salvation of mankind.

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This, then, was the task of the historian in the Middle Ages: to show how the world was governed by the providence of God, and how the Church was the instrument through which that providence was made manifest. It was a task that required not only learning and industry, but also a deep and abiding faith. And it is for this reason that the history of the Church is, in many ways, the history of the Middle Ages themselves.