The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c8.s10: Temple at the Junction of the River and Stream
The Chālukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c8.s10
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Temple at the Junction of the River and Stream
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Outside the south-west corner of the village on the bank of the stream is temple No. 11. This is rather a curious building which looks more like a maṭha which had been converted into a temple by the addition of a shrine on the west side (Plate XXIII). The hall is square, with four heavy pillars in the centre. The lofty portion of the ceiling, over the space above the four pillars, has been carried on, at the same height to the north wall, the other three sides being under a lower and sloping roof. There is a wide opening in the west wall and, against this opening, outside, but not bonded with it, has been built a shrine with its own doorway. The masonry of the shrine and that of the hall hardly touch each other at their junction. The shrine doorway is very plain and has no dedicatory block. On the front of the beam of the hall over the opening to the shrine is a little figure, seated cross-legged, with two hands raised upwards towards the breast from the elbows, and each holding a lotus bud, in exactly the same position as the image of Sūrya on the back wall of the upper shrine of Lāḍ Khān's temple.
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Fig. 13.—Small shrine in front of temple No. 11, Aihole.
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The doorway of the hall is unlike any other at Aihole (Plate XXIII). Like the solitary doorway of the demolished temple on the south side of the temple No. 9, this has the water-pot, elephant and fat figure at the bottom on either side, but in that the likeness ends. The pillarettes of the jamb mouldings, on either side of the door, are here surmounted by *makaras* whose great tails of elaborate arabesque hang over the capitals and envelop the mouldings below. A similar arrangement to this may be seen on the door of the Jaina temple at Paṭṭadakal (see Fig. 22). Instead of the dedicatory block, above the door, containing an image of some sort, as is usual, it is a purely ornamental feature. Two *makaras* heads, looking opposite ways, are bound together by a little square button or brooch. A similar device adorns the outer doorway of the temple of Pāpanātha at Paṭṭadakal, described further on. Gaṅgā and Yamunā are here very important figures on either side of the door, the *makara* under Gaṅgā, though not shown on the drawing, being distinctly traceable on the corroded surface of the stone.