140 



DESCRIPTIVE REMARKS Oft 



Scarcely any of the monolithic shrines have been finished, 

 one or two indeed have but just been begun ; and the same 

 may be said of the excavated shrines ; but the built or struc- 

 tural temples appear to have been more nearly, if not quite 

 finished. 



It would seem as if the original sculptors and stone-cutters 

 who executed the bas-reliefs, the monoliths and the caves, 

 had passed away before their work was finished, leaving the 

 temples without the shrine cells which they were intended to 

 hold and therefore useless. For the devotional services for 

 which they were designed, the monoliths were evidently a 

 failure and were abandoned. In their place I suppose that 

 the structural temples (Nos. 6, 8, 34, and 54) were built, and 

 the worship of Siva extensively performed in conjunction 

 perhaps with that of Vishnu, Brahma and the Saktis. 



At some time the Saiva religion must have suffered a total 

 eclipse, due perhaps to its innate corruption and the influence 

 of such reformers as Ramanujacarya, but more probably to 

 the northern Vaishnava sect that came in with the conquerors 

 from Mysore and Telingana. The linga was evidently cast 

 out from the shrines, or rooted up for the relics or treasure 

 supposed to have been buried under it. 



The Yaishnava heroes and avataras were recognized and 

 adopted by the new sect, A temple enclosure was built 

 round the Varahasvaml rock sculpture and shrine No. 35, 

 and a pillared hall constructed in front of the great pastoral 

 scene found carved on the open rock, named the Krishna 

 Mandapa (No. 15), the style of which, although the lion-based 

 pillars have been reproduced, is evidently very different and 

 more modern than that of the adjacent shrines. 



With the exception perhaps of No. 25, the Varahasvaml 

 Mandapa (excavation), the Ramanuja Mandapa appears to 

 have been the most finished cave of all, and probably con- 

 tained the most marked signs of Saiva predominance. Some- 



