Mallikarjuna Temple, Kuruvatti

The Mallikarjuna temple is located in the town of Kuruvatti (also spelt Kuruvathi) in the

The art historian Ajay Sinha classifies the Kuruvatti style to be a third idiom, the other two being the Lakkundi and Itagi (or Ittagi) schools. He describes the overall achievement at Kuruvatti as "majestic", despite a lack of artistic over indulgence. The building material used is soapstone^[3][4] According to Sinha, a 1099 A.D. inscription at the temple claims it was constructed in service of the god "Abhinava Someshvara" and that the temple also went by the name "Ahavamallesvara". He recants that both names are associated with the deceased Chalukya King Someshvara I who committed voluntary suicide at Kuruvatti in 1062. Sinha feels the temple may have been constructed between 1070 and 1100 in his memory by his heir apparent, the King Vikramaditya VI.^[4]

Temple plan

The Mallikarjuna temple has a single shrine with a superstructure or tower (ekakuta vimana^[5]) with porched entrances from three sides.

According to the art historian Adam Hardy, the existing tower (shikhara) is a later day re-construction.^[1][3]

But the art historian Henry Cousens feels the superstructure and its

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  Profile of Mallikarjuna temple at Kuruvatti
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  A sculpture of the Hindu god Ganesha in Mallikarjuna temple at Kuruvatti
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  Ornate shrine entrance

  doorjamb

  inMallikarjuna temple at Kuruvatti
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  Lathe turned pillar with ornate base in Mallikarjuna temple at Kuruvatti
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  Pillared mantapa in Mallikarjuna temple at Kuruvatti
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  balustrade

  on a porch in Mallikarjuna temple at Kuruvatti
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  Shrine wall relief, molding frieze and miniature decorative tower in Mallikarjuna temple at Kuruvatti
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  Wall relief, turret, pilasters with miniature decorative towers in Mallikarjuna temple at Kuruvatti
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  Wall relief, turret, pilasters with miniature decorative towers in Mallikarjuna temple at Kuruvatti

See also

• Basaveshwara temple, Kuruvathi
• Mallikarjuna Temple, Basaralu

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c d} "Mallikarjuna Temple". Archaeological Survey of India, Bengaluru Circle. ASI Bengaluru Circle. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
2. ^ "Alphabetical List of Monuments - Karnataka -Bangalore, Bangalore Circle, Karnataka". Archaeological Survey of India, Government of India. Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
3. ^ ^{a b} Cousens (1926) and Foekema (1987) in Hardy (1995), p335
4. ^ ^{a b} Sinha (2000), p.142
5. ^ Foekema (1996), p25
6. ^ ^{a b c} Cousens (1926), p103

References

• Cousens, Henry (1996) [1926]. The Chalukyan Architecture of Kanarese Districts. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.
  OCLC 37526233
  .
• "Mallikarjuna Temple". Archaeological Survey of India, Bengaluru Circle. ASI Bengaluru Circle. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
• Adam Hardy, Indian Temple Architecture: Form and Transformation: The Karṇāṭa Drāviḍa Tradition, 7th to 13th Centuries, Abhinav, 1995, New Delhi.
  ISBN 81-7017-312-4
  .
• Ajay Sinha, Imagining architects: creativity in the religious monuments of India, University of Delaware, Associated University Press, 2000, Cranbury, New Jersey
  ISBN 0-87413-684-9
  .
• "Alphabetical List of Monuments - Karnataka -Bangalore, Bangalore Circle, Karnataka". Archaeological Survey of India, Government of India. Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts. Retrieved 12 July 2012.
• Gerard Foekema, A Complete Guide to Hoysala Temples, Abhinav, 1996
  ISBN 81-7017-345-0
  .

External links

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