The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c8.s1: The Temple of Mēguṭi
The Chālukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c8.s1
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The Temple of Mēguṭi
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The dated temple of Mēguṭi (No. 1 on plan), which stands upon the brow of the hill overshadowing the village on the east, forms an early landmark in the history of the styles we are about to examine (Plates II—XXV). Unfortunately the temple is not complete having lost its tower and much of its lower structure. Although, perhaps, not the oldest temple here, it will be convenient to take it up first, and then arrange the others on either side of it as their peculiarities of construction may seem to demand. Upon its eastern side, engraved upon a fine large slab of stone let into the wall, is an inscription which records its erection in A.D. 634 by a certain Ravikīrti during the reign of the Western Chālukya king, Pulikēśin II.² But, before this, about A.D. 578, the Vaishṇava cave at Bādāmi was excavated by Kirtivarman I., a predecessor of Pulikēśin II. The inscription upon it records the fact that this king excavated the cave, and a grant of land was made for its upkeep upon that date. Though several of the other old temples at Aihole have inscriptions upon them, no others are dated; but the latest possible limit of age for these can be very approximately ascertained from the style of the characters used in the script.
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² *Indian Antiquary*, VIII. p. 237.
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The temple of Mēguṭi, as may be seen from the plan (Plate IV), is a long rectangular building consisting of two principal parts—the shrine, with its surroundings, and the forward
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Fig. 5.—The temple of Mēguṭi from the south-east, Aihole
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hall. The square shrine stands within a larger compartment whose outer walls completely envelop it, leaving a passage all round between them and the walls of the shrine. This circumscribing passage, which is but dimly lighted by small perforated stone windows in the walls, is divided up into small rooms by cross-walls and pilasters. Out before the shrine is a small hall or antechamber, and, beyond this again, is a larger hall which has been roughly rebuilt in later times upon the plinth of an older one.
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Mēguṭi is a purely Dravidian structure.¹ The projections and returns, with their flanking pilasters, along the outer faces of the walls, are characteristic of that style. But the most marked feature, which leaves no doubt about it, is the stump of the storey above the shrine, which is the first storey of a Dravidian tower and was used as an upper shrine. The rubble built up upon the roof, seen in the photograph, appears to have been put up in very late times to form a barricade against missiles and to convert it into a small stronghold or watch-tower. Pot-tiles, such as are used for drains, are inserted, in great numbers, in these walls, all sloping outwards and downwards, to fire through at those attacking the place from the courtyard. The spaces between the pillars of the outer hall were also filled in with rubble for the same reason.
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¹ I keep to the terms "Dravidian," "Northern" and "Chālukyan," in their application to the styles which will come under our consideration as they are defined in Fergusson's History of Indian and Eastern Architecture.
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The interior of the temple is very dark. Within the shrine, seated upon a throne against the back wall, is a colossal Jina, while, lying in the passage round the shrine, on the west side, is a huge slab containing the image of a *devī* (Plate IV). This *devī* is, no doubt, the same as we find in Jaina temples in North Gujarāt and Rājputāna under the names of Ambikā, Ambā Bhavanī, Ambādevī, and Ambājī.¹ She is described in inscriptions as seated upon a lion vehicle and having two children, one upon each lap. In this image the children are held by attendants, one on either side. It is also a favourite image in the Jaina caves at Eḷūrā. The block, upon which the shrine image is carved, seems too large to have been brought in through the temple doorways: it was possibly placed in position before the shrine walls were built. The shrine doorway, as well as those of the antechamber, is very plain, having simple vertical mouldings up the sides, and a row of small *chaitya*-window ornaments along over the top.
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¹ *List of Antiquarian Remains in the Bombay Presidency*, p. 355. *Epigraphia Indica*, IX, p. 156; *Ras Mala*, 1878 ed., Vol. I, p. 328; and *Journ. Bom. Br. R. A. S.*, XVIII, p. 26.
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The inner shrine walls which rise through the roof, form the walls of an upper shrine, above which the *śikhara* or tower rose, just as may be seen in the Jaina temple at Paṭṭadakal (Plate LI). This upper shrine was a distinguishing feature in these early Jaina temples.
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The outer walls are severely plain, being relieved by alternate square projections and recesses with pilastered corners. It was evidently intended to decorate the projecting panels with sculpture, for the faces of the central blocks at the corners have been left rough for this purpose, and the intermediate ones have shallow niches in which to fix loose sculptures. Two of the latter lie on the west side of the temple upon the ground. One of these represents two standing figures—a man and a woman. The man holds an offering which seems to be in a pot, while the woman stands upon his right. In the other, the man also holds an offering, but the woman is on his left. Placed in the two niches on either side or the back of the temple, they would be symmetrically arranged, that is, both looking towards or from the centre. A band of small figures, in panels, with some arabesque, runs round the plinth. Many of the little *chaitya*-window ornaments have been left in block, in an unfinished state. There is no doubt the temple was never completed, and, probably, the tower was not built.
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‘Mēguṭi,’ or ‘Myaguṭi,’ is a corruption of *mēguḍi*, meaning ‘the upper temple,’ or ‘the temple that is above,’ and has been so named on account of its elevated position upon the hill. Enclosing a court around the temple is a fortified wall, following the edge of the hill round the north, west and south sides. The temple faces the north, the Jains not being particular upon this point.
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Just below the brow of the hill, close under Mēguṭi, is a curious two-storied temple which is partly structural and partly excavated in the rock (Fig. 6). It consists of two long verandahs, one above the other, with a frontage of four heavy square pillars and two pilasters. Off the verandah of the upper storey is a long room and three shrines, cut in the rock; off the lower is the beginning of a shrine. In relief upon the centre of the upper verandah ceiling, in front of the shrine door, is the figure of a small seated *clothed* Jina with a triple umbrella above him.
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Fig. 6.—The two-storeyed Jaina temple, Aihole