History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c24.s2.4

v2.c24.s2.4

When with this new light we come to examine with care the architecture of these façades, we find the Elûrâ group exhibits an extraordinary affinity with the southern style. The little detached shrine in the courtyard of the Indra Sabhâ, and the gateway shown in the above woodcut (No. 274), are as essentially Dravidian in style as the Kailâs itself, and, like many of the details of these caves, so nearly identical that they cannot possibly be very distant in date. May we, therefore, assume from this that the Chalukyan kingdom of Bâdâmi, in the 7th century of our era, and the Râshtrakûta of Mâlkhed, which follow in the 8th to 10th century, extended from Elûrâ on the north to the Tungâbhadrâ and Krishnâ on the south, and that all these rock-cut examples, with the temple at Aihole (Woodcut No. 181), were excavated or erected under the auspices of these two dynasties!