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490
YAŠASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
erected by the younger queen of Vikramāditya II, named Trailokyamahādevi, a sister or Lokamahādevi. The general plan and design are the same as in Virüpākşa, but many parts of this temple have been left unfinished. The temples of Vijayeśvara, Virūpăksa and Trailokyeśvara form an imposing group; and an inscription which gives us information about these three temples is engraved upon a great column which stands upon the north side of Virūpākşa. It was erected by a sculptor, named Subhadeva, for a Saiva teacher named Jñānasiva who had come from a place on the north bank of the Ganges, in 754 A. D., during the reign of Kirtivarman II. There are certain other old Saiva temples at Pattadakal, such as those of Kāśivisvanātha, Galaganātha and Kādasiddheśvara, but they are smaller in size, and of uncertain date; and there exist also the remains of two other temples of the same class, namely, Jambhulinga and Candrasekhara. Far more important is the large ornate temple of Pāpanātha, which cannot be later than that of Virūpākşa, but seems to have been dedicated to Vişnu, as shown by the Garuda emblem over the shrine door. There are, however, indications that it was, at a later date, converted to Saiva worship.
Śiva temples are found also at Badami, in the south-east corner of the Bijapur district, the former Vātāpi, a capital of the early, Calukyas. The oldest and the best preserved is the Mālegitti-sivālaya, 'the Saiva shrine of the female Garland-maker,' 56 feet in length, and of the same style as the older temples at Aihole. It is a complete Dravidian temple.... All its parts are heavy and massive and well proportioned to one another.' It seems to have been originally dedicated to Vişnu, with that deity in the ceiling, and Garuda on the lintel of the shrine doorway. Another interesting temple at Badami is the smaller one of Lakulīša, an incarnation of Siva, whose image is seated upon the altar in the shrine, and represented nude as usual. Badami possesses yet another old Saiva temple, that of Virūpākşa, which is still in use.
In a secluded glen between Pattadakal and Badami is the temple of Mahākūteśvara, which may be ascribed to the early part of the sixth century A. D., as an inscription of 601 A. D., engraved on a column found near the temple, records an additional grant made in continuation of a previous endowment of the god Siva under the name of Makuteśvaranātha. Another temple, which, on the grounds of style and more cyclopean-looking masonry', is regarded as older than the seventh century A. D., is that of Huchchimalli-Gudi at Aihole. Unfortunately the interior of the shrine has been totally wrecked, portions of the linga and the paving of the floor lying about in great confusion'. An inscription of 708 A. D., upon the front of
There is a dvārapala, four-armed, on either side of the shrine door......... In the upper left hand of the south figure is a triśüla, but it has been made of plaster, evidently after the temple was converted to Saiva worship.' There is also the tändava sculpture on the face of the tower. On the other hand, the astadikpāla ceiling, in the centre of the hall, has Vişņu reclining upon Seșa as its central panel instead of the tāndava of Śiva which is usual in such ceilings found in Saiva temples.' Consens (op. cit., p. 69.
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