The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c7.6

c7.6

It is noteworthy that from this time the favourite building material of the early rulers—the sandstone of the district—was abandoned in favour of a new material, a greenish or bluish-black stone, more tractable under the chisel, and eminently suited for the fine carving which is so characteristic of Chālukya work.¹ With the change in material came a diminution in the size of the masonry; and, with the adoption of smaller masonry, was lost the power and dignity that distinguished the older work. The great archaic-looking blocks of the early builders were supplanted by much smaller ones; but, as in the beginning, so it continued to be, that all masonry was built dry with no cementing material between the stones. The blocks were dressed to level beds and piled one upon the other. The earliest work in western India, before the date of these early Dravidian temples, was, no doubt, in brick masonry such as we find in the very old Buddhist *chaitya*-temple at Tēr, on the northern confines of the Chālukyan dominions.²