Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/491

 CHAP. I. KURUVATTI. 429 examples of intricate and delicate chiselling ; but the shrine doorway, here represented, rivals the others in design and workmanship. This doorway, though small the entrance being only 2 ft. 9 in. wide by 5 ft. 8 in. high is of good proportions. The variety of ornamental detail on the three fascias within the pilasters may be studied on the illustration. It is so delicately chiselled and in parts so undercut as to be almost detached from the stone. The pilasters support a cornice over the door frame, and from its centre depends a shield presenting Gaja-Lakshmt or Sri, the goddess of success, bathed by elephants. On the upper side of the cornice are elephants righting, soldiers and other figures, spiritedly executed, but now much damaged. Above is a frieze divided into five panels by carved uprights, and containing figures of .Siva and Parvati with attendants in the central one, Brahma and Vishnu in those to left and right, and devotees in the end panels. This is surmounted by a projecting moulding carved with a leaf ornament that appears in all ages of Hindu art. In the recesses between the mouldings of the doorway and the pilasters, supporting the roof, a single figure is inserted and a rod or stalk with leaf tracery branching off but stopping below the capitals of the door pilasters. The three fascias of the architrave are also very richly and beautifully sculptured. At Chaudadampur on the Tungabhadra, about 12 miles north from the railway at Ranibennur, is a fine bold temple of black stone belonging to the nth century, with all its details more completely finished than in some others. As will be noticed in the photograph (Plate XV.), its defects in design are the form of its dome and the insignificance of its crowning member or finial, which latter, however, is probably not the original Kalas. KURUVATTI. At Kuruvatti on the right bank of the Tungabhadra, 17 miles west from Harpanahalli, and about 3 miles from Chaudadampur, is a temple now dedicated to Malikarjuna (Woodcut No. 249). It is on the same general plan as that of Some^var at Gadag, but with a porch and doorway on the north as well as the south side of the mandap. In the shrine are three recesses in the walls, either for so many important images, where the temple had only one shrine, or for the vessels used in the worship. 1 1 In the Ke.rava temple at Huvinaha- dagalli, in the old Chalukya temple at Nagai, 25 miles south-east from Kulbarga, and in others, are similar deep recesses. Rea's 'Chalukyan Architecture,' p. 21 and plate 92; H. Stone, 'The Nizam's State Railway,' plan at p. 198.