An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c9.s19.t3.16

v1.c9.s19.t3.16

*4.19.8 Upper Deccan*. The majority of sites in the upper Deccan appear to have been deserted after the downfall of the Sātavāhanas in the 3rd century A.D. Some, however, continued under occupation for some centuries more as the find of Kalacuri and Viṣṇukuṇḍin coins thereat would show. TER was inhabited, but poorly, because of the decline in its status as a great trading emporium, though habitation during the Vākāṭaka-Gupta period (c. A.D. 300-600) is attested by the find of terracottas in the Gupta style. At Kausan near PAITHAN the earlier settlement was washed away by a heavy flood but the site was reoccupied during *c.* A.D. 600-800 as is indicated by a ruined brick temple of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa period. At BHOKARDAN the structures of the late historical period were built in a haphazard manner, and there is a marked deterioration in the art and crafts for which the site had been justly famous in the preceding period. To this period belong stone plaques carved with figures of Śiva and Pārvatī and depicting nude women, in many cases headless, the like of which are found in the structural and cave temples of the Chalukyan period in the Deccan. It may be stated that terracotta plaques of this type occur even in the early historical levels in the upper Deccan.