The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c16.s1.34

v2.c16.s1.34

In studying the structural monuments of the Deccan, it will be helpful to keep in view also the political history of the country. It has been observed above¹ that the Āndhras were followed by the Vākāṭakas, who came from the provinces to the north of the Deccan and had matrimonial relations with the Guptas. During their rule of some two hundred years (A.D. 300-500) many architectural decorative features of North India were adopted in the Deccan. The next dynasty to rule there was that of the Chāḷukyas, who extended their kingdom both in the north and in the south and were often at war with the Pallavas of Kāñchī, the modern Conjeevaram. Their capital was first at Bādāmi (Vātāpipura), now a small town in the Bijāpur District. Apart from the rock-cut shrines which the Chāḷukyas built at Bādāmi in imitation of the Buddhist temples, they constructed several fanes of great magnitude in the suburbs of their capital, which may still be seen at Paṭṭadakal and Aihole. The Lokeśvara temple at Paṭṭadakal bears inscriptions of the Chāḷukyan king Vikramāditya II (A.D. 733-46), stating that this temple was built for his queen Lokamahādevī, in memory of his having thrice conquered the Pallavas of Kāñchī.² The temple bears a striking resemblance to the contemporary Rājasimheśvara temple of Kāñchī, and there is a copper-plate grant of the reign of Kīrtivarman II (A.D. 746-57) which mentions that his father (Vikramāditya II) was much impressed by the sculpture of the latter shrine and probably had it overlaid with gold.³ It is likely that the magnificence of the Rājasimheśvara temple induced Vikramāditya to take some of the master-builders of Kāñchī with him to his own capital at Bādāmi. This conjecture receives support from two inscriptions on the eastern gateway of the Lokeśvara, one of them clearly stating that the builder of the shrine was ‘the most eminent sutradhārī of the southern country’.