The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c8.s8.1

c8.s8.1

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.)