Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/486

 428 CHALUKYAN STYLE. BOOK IV. mandapas the perforated screen work is well worth attention. The original jikhara had been ruined, and is replaced by a modern brick tower, altogether unworthy of the rest of the building, which otherwise may be compared with the Belur temple mentioned below. An inscription records the restora- tion, or perhaps reconstruction, of this temple in the loth century, to which period it possibly belongs ; but there were later repairs at least, as under some of the images on the exterior are tablet inscriptions of A.D. 1192, 1199, and 1213. Close to this, on its south side, is a small temple dedicated to Sarasvati, the goddess of learning and consort of Brahma, and is one of the most remarkable for elaborate sculpture even among those of this style. It is sadly dilapidated, but the pillars are of the most varied patterns, and carved in the minutest detail, as are also the screen walls, the roof, and doorway of the shrine. 1 As already noted, the doorways of Indian temples have always been objects of sculptural decoration. Panels in the roofs, as in the instance cited at Ittagi, have also been treated with like care, a favourite device being the division into nine compartments in each of which was represented the mythological guardians, regents, or Dikpalas of the eight points of the compass, the central panel being appropriated to the presiding divinity of the temple. 2 The rich sculptures on the Muhammadan Mihrabs may be, and probably are largely due to the taste of Hindu workmen, who applied to them the decorative style they had been accustomed to employ on the doorways of their own shrines. The subject cannot be adequately illustrated in a work of this compass, but a single example (Plate No. XIV.), 3 may help to convey some idea of the character of the doorways of Chalukyan temples. This is from one of the many very interesting old temples at Lakkundi, a village 7 miles east- south-east from Gadag. These temples are mostly fallen to ruin, having suffered severely from the Chola invasion in the nth century, when those at Lakshme^var were also destroyed. And, at a much later date, in the feuds between the Brahmans and Lingayats, they further suffered. The finest and one of the largest of these temples is that of Ka^ivijve^var, which is a double one, a western temple consisting of a shrine, hall and porch, and a smaller eastern shrine with antarala, connected with the porch to the west by a raised platform. The doorways on the south and east of the hall are beautiful 1 For a fuller description of the temples at Gadag by the editor, see 'Bombay Gazetteer,' vol. xxii. (Dharwar)pp. 7i3ff. 8 A. good example of this, from Ganginkatti in Dharwar, is given in ' Technical Art Series,' 1888, plate I. 3 From 'Technical Art Series,' 1887, plate 3.