The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c8.1

c8.1

CHANGES in the East have been slow where change has occurred at all. A stroll through the old village of Aihole would leave one under the impression that, at least in this quiet spot, no change, save that of decay, has altered the place or the sleepy life of its inhabitants in any material respect since the times of its prosperity, thirteen hundred years ago. Off the beaten track of modern progress, surrounded by its fields and pastures, it dozes in the sunshine beneath the sandstone crags of the hill of Mēguṭi. Begirt by the remnants of its old cyclopean walls, which have now more gaps than gates, it plods its peaceful way, year in and year out. The village kine, in straggling herds, are daily driven out in the morning to their grazing grounds, and are as regularly driven back again at dusk just as they have been all down through the ages.