Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/482

 426 CHALUKYAN STYLE. BOOK IV. At Kukkanur, within 4 miles northwards from Ittagi is a notable group of temples, indicating that at an early period the place must have been of considerable note. Most of them stand together in a walled enclosure inside the village, about 82 yds. in length from north to south, and 75 yds. from east to west. On the east side is a massive gateway of perhaps the i6th century, and the temples are arranged as in the plan (Woodcut No. 247). The larger temple opposite the entrance is in use, and is 247. Plan of Temples at Kukkanur. Scale 100 ft. to i in. perhaps, in its present form, of about the age of the enclosure. But on the west side of it is an interesting congeries of nine shrines, now containing lingas, of an earlier date possibly going back to the pth century. The .dkharas of these are more Dravidian in contour than Chalukyan ; but the pillars inside with round shafts and spreading capitals, and the tendency to reduce and render less emphatic the storeys of the spires, mark them as indicating an early advance towards the latter style. The outer surfaces of the walls also are overlaid with carving after the Chalukyan fashion ; but the red sandstone of which they are built has decayed considerably from exposure and obliterated much of the detail. There are other temples here of which some are probably of about the same age as these. To the south-west of the village is one, in tolerably good preservation, which is quite Dravidian in outline with indications of a tendency to the more