The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c8.s2: The Temple of Lāḍ Khān
The Chālukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c8.s2
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The Temple of Lāḍ Khān
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The oldest temple at Aihole is probably that of Lāḍ Khān (Plates V—VIII). There is an inscription upon the front wall in characters of the 8th or 9th century A.D., which records a grant by a certain man to the Five-Hundred, the great body of the Chaturvēdis of the excellent capital of Āryapura.¹ The inscription, therefore, does not seem to have any connection with the temple other than that it was a convenient and permanent place to publish the grant.
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¹ *Indian Antiquary*, VIII, 287.
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There is no temple at Aihole, nor elsewhere that I know of, which impresses one so much with its cave-like character. Its general massiveness, the simplicity of its construction, and its plan and details, have much more in common with cave architecture than with that of later mediæval temples—and with cave architecture not of the latest. It is peculiarly wooden-looking in its construction, making allowance for the more massive nature of stone-work. This might seem a contradiction of the previous statement did we not know that cave architecture is itself, in great measure, derived from wooden forms. The walls are not walls in the ordinary sense of stone masonry, but are composed of posts, at intervals, joined up by screens and lattice windows. The flat roof, and its want of elevation, are cave-like characteristics. But, more than with anything else, one is struck with the great massive pillars, with their roll bracket-capitals, which evince a simpler and more dignified style than many of those more-decorated ones in Cave III at Bādāmi; and they, certainly, have the appearance of greater age than the latter.
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The very unusual position of the shrine, which is placed *within* the great hall, against the back wall, has a very primitive air about it. At first sight it would seem that the building was simply a hall or *maṭha* in which, by an afterthought, a shrine was clumsily inserted to convert it into a temple. That this was not so, is clearly shown by the fact that in the similar temples of the Kont-Guḍi group, the beam, from pillar to pillar before the shrine, has been placed on a higher level in the original construction in order to admit of the lofty doorway being seen to its full height, and lion brackets project under the raised beam, one on each side, to further decorate the entrance to the shrine. (See Plate VIII.) After very close examination of these temples I am fully persuaded that these peculiar shrines are original. Moreover, there are, on the north and south sides of the temple, three perforated windows, the central one occupying the central bay of the walling and the other two the adjoining ones; but, in the back wall, which has the same arrangement of bays, between the pilasters, there are only two panels with windows (unfortunately not shown in the plan), those on either side of the central bay which was left unpierced on account of the shrine within. Taking all these points into consideration, and noting the total absence of anything like a *śikhara* or tower, I feel constrained to place this temple at an earlier date than that of Mēguṭi, but how much earlier it is not possible to say with any approximation to accuracy. The architecture of Cave III at Bādāmi is a distinct advance upon this in general style.
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The pillars are the most characteristic feature of the temple, being remarkable for their great massiveness, which are more suited to support the heavy rock in a cave cutting than the lighter roof of a structural temple. The shafts are single heavy square blocks, without bases, from the floor to the bracket-capital, the last being a separate stone. The central four pillar shafts, without the bracket-capitals, are single stones measuring, each, 9′ 7″ by 2′ 5″ square. The roll brackets are thoroughly cave-like in character.
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Though the decorative details upon this temple are spare, they are vigorous and expressive; they are suited to their position, and are not so crowded and meaningless as in many later buildings. The great lattice windows in the north and south sides are very chaste and effective, introduced, as they are, into otherwise severely plain walling with which they agree most admirably. In the west or back, and the front walls are pairs of circular windows, set in square frames, in which are radiating fish, forming as it were, the spokes of a wheel. This same fish design is found in the ceiling of Cave II at Bādāmi. But the most decorated part of the temple is the front porch, the pillars of which have life-sized images upon them in bold relief (Plate VII). On the extreme south pillar of the façade is a female figure standing on a tortoise, which is intended to represent the river goddess Yamunā. Probably, upon the corresponding pillar at the north end will be found Gaṅgā on her *makara*, but this has been obscured by the wall of an adjacent house which is built against it. Between the pillars is a low parapet wall having a seat running round on the inside. The outside of this wall is panelled and decorated with ornamental waterpots and a complicated knotted design. The ceilings are very plain. In the central bay of the hall ceiling is a small *Nāga* or serpent figure, with his tail rolled twice around him.
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A remarkable feature is the absence of a tower or *śikhara*, and there is no indication of any intention to build one. This, again, points to a cave prototype, where it was impossible to have one. Over the central bay of the hall ceiling and roof rises a small square shrine facing east, and the roof of this shrine is covered with flat slabs which do not appear to have had a *śikhara* over them, in fact, a *śikhara* over this little shrine would have looked ridiculous, and it would not have been above the main shrine, below, where it would be required by the canons which directed the construction of later temples.
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As to the dedication of the temple originally, there can be little doubt. Upon the dedicatory block, over the shrine door, is Garuḍa, the vehicle of Viṣṇu, and the doorway is flanked, upon either side, by a two-armed *dvārapāla* or doorkeeper, with a club. Upon the three sides of the small shrine, upon the roof, are images, two of which are but partly finished. That on the north side is a female under a tree; on the south is a four-armed Viṣṇu with his *chakra*, *śaṅkha* and *mālā* while, on the west or back of the shrine, is Sūrya. This last points to the probability of this small shrine having been dedicated to this deity, being placed upon the roof so that the rays of the rising sun could shine straight into the cell and on the image within, unimpeded by the intervening houses of the village. The temple, therefore, was Vaiṣṇava. We know that the early kings of the western Chālukya dynasty were of the Vaiṣṇava cult, since mostly all of their grants open with an invocation to Viṣṇu, and have his boar upon their seals. Within the shrine has been placed, in later times, a *liṅga*, and before it, in the centre of the hall, a large Nandi or bull.
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The waterpot ornament, which is seen on the front of the porch, is a very favourite device in the decorative details of many of these old temples. That the idea of its use, in this way, is at all connected with the traditional origin of the Chālukyas from the waterpot is very doubtful.¹ It was not confined to Chālukyan work, for it is found repeatedly used in the Rāṣṭrakūṭa caves at Elūrā. Again, it is seen, in rather classic guise, with draperies, at the tops of the several very fine memorial stones at Borivali in Sālsette island near Bombay (see Plates CLIII and CLIV). Nor is it confined to any particular religious sect, for we find it both on Brahmanical and Jaina temples. The finials of temples are but waterpots—the *kalaśa*.
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¹ For an account of this see *The Bombay Gazetteer*, Vol. I, Part II, page 339.
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The images of Gaṅgā (the Ganges) and Yamunā (the Jumna) were also favourite objects in the earlier temples, especially in Northern India, being generally placed on either side of the shrine door. They first appear in very early temples at the top of the door jambs, and from there they were brought down to the bottom and finally disappeared altogether in later work.² Gaṅgā and Yamunā are frequently mentioned in old Kanarese inscriptions. Vijayāditya’s inscriptions, for instance, say that he conquered some great king of Northern India when he acquired the *pālidhvaja* banner and also the insignia of the signs of the rivers Gaṅgā and Yamunā. These were also Rāṣṭrakūṭa insignia.³
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² There is a special shrine of the three river goddesses, Gaṅgā, Yamuna and Sarasvati, excavated in the rock in the courtyard of Kailāsa at Elūrā, in which were three very fine life-sized images, now much mutilated. See *History of Indian and Eastern Architecture*, Vol. I, p. 345.
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³ *Bombay Gazetteer*, Vol. I, Part II, pp. 358, 368, 371, 387, 396 and 416.
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The name " Lāḍ Khān," by which this temple is known, is merely the name of a Musalmān, who, not long ago, occupied the building as a residence. In the same way other old deserted buildings in the town are known only by the names of the parties who have been lately living in them. They have been so long in disuse as shrines that the very names of the deities, to which they were dedicated, have been forgotten. Most have been appropriated by the Liṅgāyats, who have introduced the liṅga and Nandi; but even these have been deserted.