SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The limitations of this study are evident from the title. Only the architectural monuments of the Early Western Calukyas are here considered and those structures which date from earlier or later periods at the Western Calukyan sites together with the rock-cut monuments do not form part of the study. The sculptural and decorated portions of the buildings are only briefly referred to, and comparisons with the architecture of contemporary dynasties will not be attempted. Such severe limitations have been imposed so as to permit a thorough architectural description and analysis of what is the largest earliest group of temples known in India from this period. Such a study takes its starting point from a thorough documentation comprising a set of measured drawings and accompanying detailed descriptions. In comparing the buildings, it has been found necessary to divide them into a number of component features. These features are then individually compared, and the variations within each noted. The resulting observations are assembled, so that certain temples may be associated together by the similarity of their features. The few dated monuments may suggest the possibility of a tentative chronology, but such conclusions are not the main objective of this study.