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  Rock-cut Architecture “The russet-coloured rocky hills not only acted as impregnable forts at Badami and Aihole but also beckoned the architects and sculptors to make use of these cliffs as the medium of their art expression. It is worth pointing here that the Chalukyas were the first southern power to build huge temples in massive scale in an imperishable material, i.e stone” – Sheelakant Pattar At a time when rock-cut architecture in the Western Deccan and closer to the coast in western Maharashtra were dominated by prolific Buddhist Viharas and Chaityas, the entry of Chalukyas brought in one of the earliest and impressive rock-cut Brahmanical caves in southern India . What started as rock-carvings that would provide varshavasa for the Buddhist monks led to creation of expansive Chaityas as well as Viharas either at Kanheri or the Ajanta and Ellora caves with royal patronage, support of trade guilds, and a large congregation of monastic order on the ancient trade route. Tuc...

“The temple is the concrete shape (murti) of the Essence; as such it is the residence and vesture of God. The masonry is the sheath (kosa) and body. The temple is the monument of manifestation. The devotee who comes to the temple, to look at it, does so as a seer, not as a spectator” – Stella Kramrisch The Early Chalukyan or the Badami, Western Chalukyan cave and temple architecture has been a subject of deep and long drawn research since the times of James Fergusson. Yet in the popular discourse and historical narratives the development in the South gets overshadowed by the study of either the glorious Gupta art in the North or the magnificent caves of Western India. The Early Chalukyan temple territory is small if we consider the core of their construction in the Malaprabha valley (Mahakuta, Badami, Aihole, Pattadakal set in a 25 kilometers long Malaprabha river valley) in the present day northern Karnataka, though their overall footprint was large, spread acros...