The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v2.c16.s1.49

v2.c16.s1.49

To illustrate the above remarks, which are more or less general, a description of a few important temples in the Deccan, with plans and photographs, is given below. To begin with the temples of the South-West Deccan, the Mahādeva temple of Ittagi may be noticed first, because it is considered to be the finest temple of its kind in that part of the country. It is situated some three miles to the south of Banikop station on the M.S.M. Railway, between Bellary and Gadag. The village was until recently included in Nawāb Sālār Jung’s jagir in the Raichur District of the Hyderabad State. The plan of the temple comprises a shrine with an ante-chamber, a closed hall with porches on either side of it towards the north and south, and a pillared hall which is open at the sides. The temple faces the rising sun, and the great open hall at the east end was originally supported upon sixty-eight pillars. Twenty-six of these are large ones, standing on the floor and forming the main support of the roof: the rest, which were shorter, stood on the stone bench surrounding the hall, and carried the sloping eaves. The large columns are of different designs, but are arranged symmetrically with regard to the shape and pattern of each. The four central ones have angular carving arranged vertically in the shafts and capitals; the design, although very rich (Plate XVIII a), seems quite in harmony with the elaborate pattern of the other architectural parts of the building. For instance, the slabs of the ceiling of the middle apartment of the hall have been carved into a rich arrangement of hanging arabesque foliage, and makaras² which spring from the jaws of a kirtimukha mask.³ The convolutions of the design with their circling excrescences and bewildering whorls form a most luxuriant pattern. The inner hall, which is closed, measures 27 feet on each side, and beside the entrance from the outer hall has also doorways towards the north and the south which are richly adorned with sculpture. The exterior of the temple has deteriorated considerably and the carved masonry of the outer casing of the walls has been carried away by the villagers for use as building material for their own houses. The top of the śikhara is also missing, and the spire as it now stands is divided into three stories which are quite distinct and not so cut up and masked by decorative detail as in the temples at Ālampur.¹ The little cusped niches, which decorate the centre of each story, rising one above the other, are exceedingly handsome, and the deep canopy of the roll moulding, which is pointed with little hanging buds, is designed in very graceful curves. Their delicate lace-like workmanship is further enhanced by the background of the rich, dark shadows of the niches.