Photo 212/3(12)

Genre: Architectural Photography

A closer view than print 11 of the dome of the Vattuvan Kovil. Lyon's 'Notes to accompany a series of photographs prepared to illustrate the ancient architecture of Southern India' (Marion and Co., London, 1870), edited by James Fergusson, gives the following description of this photograph: '342 - is a more detailed view of the Carvings of this beautiful monolithic temple; that it was dedicated to Shiva, the bulls sculptured on it plainly show. Any one familiar with the caves at Ellora, will easily understand why this temple was undertaken. The Kailas there, which this shrine very much resembles both in style and position, was excavated on purpose to mark the triumph of the southern Brahmins over the Buddhist and Jaina religions, to whom the neighbouring caves belong. This in like manner was intended to mark the superiority of the Shivites over the Jains, by whom the sculptures on the other side of the hill were carved; but finding the work hard, and the accommodation to be gained small, they seem to have abandoned it for the more convenient location, where the present temple stands. From its style, it would appear that this fragment may belong to the 13th or 14th century. It stands isolated and deserted, - no one ever approaches it except by accident, and no worship of any sort is performed here. It may safely be asserted, that not half-a-dozen white persons have ever seen it, and not a dozen know of its existence; and as to the natives, they can hardly be persuaded to show its whereabouts - at first even ignoring its existence, declaring again and again that the modern one on the other side was the only temple there worthy of a visit. When it is considered what time, what money, and labour must have been expended in cutting away the rock alone, which is of a darker colour, and much harder than the ordinary grey granite found in the South, - to say nothing of the labour required to shape the rock and carve it in this wondrous fashion, - it seems sad indeed that such a gem should be lost in so out of the way a place, where even the inhabitants ignore its very existence.' According to George Michell, 'The Penguin guide to the monuments of India' (vol. 1, 1989), the temple can be dated to the 8th-9th centuries.