The Colas c35.12

c35.12

Of these early Cōḷa temples Percy Brown observes: ‘All these small structures are very complete in their formation and display a freshness and spirit in marked contrast to the last productions of the declining style of the Pallavas. So much so that they appear to herald either a new movement, or to denote some stimulation received from another and more virile source. The latter assumption is the more likely as all the temples of the group show by their treatment a close affinity to those of the more distant Cāḷukyans than to any revival of their predecessors the Pallavas’.^8 It is well known that the Cāḷukyas of Bādāmi drew upon Pallava experience for their chief temples in Paṭṭadakal, and that about the middle of the eighth century they gave place to the Rāṣṭrakūṭas who continued the Pallava-Cāḷukya tradition in structural temples and in the rock-cut style; the Cāḷukya power did not revive till towards the close of the tenth century. Most obviously, Brown’s first alternative, the heralding of a new movement, is the correct explanation of the freshness of the early Cōḷa monuments.