History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c20.5

v1.c20.5

OF the three styles into which Hindû architecture naturally divides itself, the Chalukyan is neither the least extensive nor the least beautiful, but till about sixty years ago, it certainly was the least known. The very name of the people was hardly recognised by early writers on Indian subjects, and the first clear ideas regarding them were put forward, in 1836, in a paper by Sir Walter Elliot, in the fourth volume of the ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.’ To this he added another paper, in the twentieth volume of the ‘Madras Journal’: and since then numerous inscriptions of this dynasty and of its allied families have been found and translated, largely by Dr. J. F. Fleet, in the ‘Indian Antiquary’ and ‘Journal of the Bombay Asiatic Society.’