The Durga Temple at Aihole: A Historiographical Study

The Durga Temple at Aihole is one of the most celebrated and intriguing of India’s ancient Hindu temples. No survey of Indian architecture would be complete without it, and yet no work has ever before considered it in its entirety or in its context. In this book, Gary Michael Tartakov combines the most thorough study ever made of this magnificent monument with an original investigation of the temple’s career in the literature of art history. The first part of the book scans a century-and-a-half of writing and photography to show how attempts to explain the temple have dated it in six different centuries, attributed it to eight different deities and a dozen different styles. The second part brings the temple itself into focus with a rich examination of its architectural and figurative imagery, analysing it in relation to the early Chalukya tradition within which it was created. With over 100 illustrations and maps, this is an essential book for anyone interested in ancient Indian art, architecture and archaeology, and is the definitive guide to this fascinating structure.