The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c7.42

c7.42

Standing at the approach to the courtyard of the temple of Galagnātha at Aihoḷe is an ornamental entrance which is composed of two upright pillars carrying a sculptured beam or architrave across the top (Plate XXIV). These erections, which can hardly be called gateways, pass under the names of *toraṇas* and *kīrtistambhas* neither of which terms are strictly correct in their application to them. The former really means the light and delicate cusped arch or inverted garland, thrown across from pillar to pillar under the beam in similar structures in Gujarāt and the north, while the latter has reference more to a single pillar or tower set up by itself. One of the finest examples of these ornamental entrances in India, apart from the famous ones at the Sānchi Tōpe, is at Vadnagar in North Gujarāt where the true *toraṇa* is seen.² There is another of these at Aihoḷe at the entrance to an old well in the western quarter of the village. Smaller and more insignificant ones are occasionally met with in the Kanarese districts, most of them, like that at Galagnātha, having the images of Brahmā, Śiva and Viṣṇu on the face of the architrave. Some were used as ornamental entrances to courtyards around temples or to the temples themselves, some for holding swings for the god, while others may have been used from which to suspend scales when a king had himself weighed against gold to distribute in charity.³ They may also have been used for hook-swinging.