The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c8.s2.8

c8.s2.8

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.