The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c8.s4.8

c8.s4.8

There are two or three short inscriptions on and about the temple, but they are of little interest. On a stone in the basement are the words "Śrī-Jin-Alayan"—'Holy temple of Jina' in characters of the same date as Vijayāditya's inscription on a pillar in the porch of the Mahākūṭeśvara temple (A.D. 696—733). As there seems to be not the shadow of a doubt that the temple was originally Vaiṣṇava, this may mean that at that early date the temple was either in disuse, when some Jaina stranger, mistaking it for one of his own shrines scribbled this upon it, or that it had been temporarily in the possession of the Jains. In either case it shows that the temple was then of considerable age and had been deserted. On a pillar is another short inscription in letters of the 8th or 9th century, which reads "Śrī-Basa-mayya, the bhaṭṭa of Kisuvoḷal" (Paṭṭadakal). This may be connected with the time when these temples were restored for Śaiva worship. Yet another on the north wall of the south gateway records a grant to Āditya, a priest of the temple.¹