The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c21.46

c21.46

It is to this period that Fergusson assigns the most delusive of all his classifications of Indian architecture, the "Chalukyan style." His definitions of it are so vague that it is difficult to make anything intelligible out of them. He is nearest the mark in describing it as being locally "halfway between the Dravidian and northern styles," for most of his examples are a composite form of Vishnu and Siva temples—that is, the Vishnu sikhara is crowned by the Siva dome instead of by the amalaka—a natural consequence of the fact that the districts in which he locates the style lie just between the special spheres of influence of the Vaishnavaite and Saivaite cults in the north and south of India respectively.