Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c5.3

c5.3

The earliest dynasty with which we come into contact, when treating of the structural architectural remains of the Dakhan, is that of the Rāshṭrakūṭas whom we find cutting cave-temples at Elurā, not far from the modern town of Aurangābād. At that time, and until their subjugation by the Chālukyas in the second half of the tenth century A.D., they had the Yādavas as their feudatories in the north, who are said to have been, originally, lords of Mathurā and sub-equently of Dvārakā; and it is to the patronage of this family, more than to that of the Rāshṭrakūṭas, that we owe most of the old temples now found in the Dakhan. The Rāshṭrakūṭas had ceased to exist as a ruling family more than half a century before the first stone of the temple of Ambarnātha was laid; and the Śilāhāra chiefs of the Koṅkaṇ, in whose districts it was raised, had already transferred their allegiance to the re-established family of the Western Chālukyas of Kalyāṇapura.