The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c8.s8: Two Old Temples in the Village
The Chālukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c8.s8
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Two Old Temples in the Village
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In the south end of the village, on the right of the road leading in from the southwestern gate, are two old temples of the same class as those we have been considering. The eastern one (No. 7) of the two is almost a copy of the last, but it has its three ceiling sculptures complete, two of which are shewn in Plate XXI. The central one is of Śiva, beneath which, in the centre of the hall, has been placed a Nandi. The Vaiṣṇava sculpture is rather curious. Instead of the usual representation of Viṣṇu lying at full length upon the folds of the serpent Śeṣa, he is here seated upright upon the serpent’s coils in a very natural attitude, its five-hooded head rising behind him and forming a sort of halo around his head. Some years ago we found a similar image, as a loose piece of sculpture in the shrine of the very old Vaiṣṇava brick temple, of about the same age as this, at Śirpur in the Central Provinces. (See Plate XXI.)
c8.s8.2
Garuḍa presides, as usual, over the shrine door, but, within the shrine, has been placed a liṅga, with a Nandi in the hall facing it. There is no image upon the block of the outer doorway, and no porch before the entrance, but on the four pilasters of the front wall are pairs of amatory figures such as were found upon the pillars of the porch of the temple in field 270 (Plate XXI).
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Like the last temple this has three free pillars on either side of the nave, and this arrangement precludes the possibility of a central group of four as in later temples. The original idea of a nave and side aisles, as in the chaitya caves, is better preserved.
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On the exterior walls of the shrine were three image niches as in the last two temples, but they are partly broken away and the images are gone (Fig. 12). It was probably intended to have a tower like the last one, for the first double course has been laid.
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Fig. 12.—Walls of the shrine of temple No. 7, Aihoḷe.
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The other building, which may not have been a temple but rather a maṭha, or dwelling for priests, since it has no shrine, is situated just behind the last (No. 8). It consists of a closed hall of the same style of construction as the first, with an open hall, or very large porch in front of it (Plate XIX). It is thoroughly devoid of decoration of any sort, and its pillars are great plain squared blocks. The back or west wall—the temple faces east—is a blank wall right across with no doorway through it and consequently no shrine beyond, nor is there any sign of a shrine having been constructed within the hall. Over the entrance doorway is Gaja-Lakshmī.