Kamesvara Temple At Gallavalli (An Old & Rare Book)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

Kamesvara Temple at Gallavalli , a Saivite shrine of Orissan style of architecture, built by the Eastern Ganga rulars is in Northern Andhra region. The present mono graph is a comprehensive study of the stylistic develop ment , iconographic peculiarities and the iconometric analysis of the images of the temple. This is a problem oriented study aimed at determining the ralative chronology of the Kamesvara temple among the temples in Ka linga region with the help of art, architecture styles as well as iconometry of the images. Methodologically, this is a new approach and sets a new trend in historical research as it uses the application of statistical methods to the iconometric data of the temple. The book is illustrated with map, two line drawing and 32 photographs.

Smt. Jasti Vijaya Lakshmi took her M.A. degree in Ancient History and Archaeology in 1976 from Nagarjuna University and P.Hd. degree from Andhra University in 1990. Joining as Research Investigator in the department of History and Archaeology Andhra University in UGC Career Awards Scheme of Research Projects in 1986 under Prof. M. Krishna Kumari, she has collected the data for the research project, "Pancharamas in Medieval Andhra pradesh" which was published in 1989. She specialises in Art History and evinces keen interest in following the new trends of research in exploring and bringing to light new Archaeological data. She is a member of various academic Associations and activity participates in the annual con ferences and Confrences and Seminars by presinting research papers.

Smt. Krishna Kumari, Myneni took her M.A. and Ph. D. Degrees from the Andhra University in 1973 and 1979 respectively. She is the reciepnt of UGC Young Scientists Award in Humanities and Social Sciences (Career Award) for the 1984-85. She has been on the teaching staff year since 1974 and is now Professor and Head of the Department of History and Archaeology of Andhra University, Vishakhapatnam. She has completed one and half decades of active research and has published four books and more than 45 research papers in leading academic journals. She is an active life member of the various academic and research associations. She specialises in epigraphy and art history. She is now working on a research project entitled, "Dikpalas in South Indian Art".

Studies in temple art and architecture in Andhra Pradesh have long been neglected and to date very few prominent temple sites have received the attention of the art historians. The temples of northern coastal Andhra region display the Orissan style of temple architecture, for the well-known reasons of them being held by the Eastern Ganga rulers who ruled the entire Northern Coastal Andhra region for a considerable period with Mukhalingam as their capital city. Though the region was claimed to be under the hold of the Chalukya-Chōlas, the art and architectural traditions of the temples of the region clearly show the patronage of the Eastern Gangas. In the recent years, few important works have been done on the temples of Orissa which also include those of the Northern Coastal Andhra region. Among the attempts in this direction are the earlier ones like those of N. Ramesan, Douglas Barrett and M. Rama Rao. Later, B. Masthanaiah, Vidya Dehejia, K.V. Soundara Rajan, Dipak Ranjan Das, B. Rajendra Prasad and M. Krishna Kumari followed this tract closely and brought to light the Orissan style of temples situated in the interior villages of Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts belonging to the medieval period. The art and architecture of the temples are analysed with the help of the available Silpa and Vastu texts by these competent scholars, which are factually dependable, descriptively objective and chronologically linear. The temple of Gallavalli is chosen for the present study for various reasons. Studies made on this temple are not complete and they did not present a comprehensive picture of the Kamesvara temple. Further, this temple has been chosen for the basic reason that it is now in a good preserved condition and facilitates one to study the details of the icono metric proportions of the images. Besides these, it is also aimed in the present study to ascertain relative chronology of the temple among the temples of Northern Andhra and to trace out the regional and cultural influences in the art traditions to which the Kamesvara temple has been subjected.

Methodologically, this is a new attempt. So far, the studies of the Indian art historians are generally made to consider stylistic patterns of the art and architecture of the temples with the help of the Vastu and Silpa texts. Some scholars like Stella Kramrisch, Niharanjan Ray and Amita Ray went a step further and set-up a new trend in analysing the art traditions. The new sociological approach to the study of art made by these pioneers in art history is an integrated one with consideration of aesthetic, ideological, archaeological and iconographic approaches. In recent years, new attempts have been made by Gift Siromoney, Lockwood and his colleagues in introducing the statistical and computer methods in analys ing the iconographic date which gave fruitful results. Their successful studies on the Pallava temples at Mahabalipuram and Kanchi had inspired and encouraged us to take up the new line of study of iconometry of the temple images. In the present work, the iconometric approach as well as the sociological approach is followed to make an integrated and com prehensive study of the art and architecture of the Kamesvara temple at Gallavalli.

The incorporation of the dikpalas as the images in the niches on the outer walls of the garbhagriha which is not to be seen at Sōmesvara of Mukhalingam, Jayati, Sarapalli and Sangam, is analysed and explained with the help of the similar images at Biccavolu, Alampur, Bhubaneswar, Paharpur, Muktesvara and Rajarani and reasonable conclusions are arrived at for the deviations that occurred in the location of the dikpala images and for the absence of the images of Indra and Yama. The true significance of the placement of the river goddesses in the two niches in the place of the dikpalas on the front of the temple, which is an archaizing aspect is critically examined. In assigning a date to the Gallavalli temple the epigraphical, iconographical, architectural evidence is considered in con junction with the iconometric analysis of the images of the temple and a reasonable date, i.e., early part of the eleventh century A.D. is suggested on the basis of the available evidence. In carrying out this research work we have received great help from Smt. K. Jayasree at various stages. We acknowledge her for rendering generous help in organising this work. We are very grateful to Sri P. Srinivasa Rao, for helping us in taking good photographs of the temple. We are profusely thankful to Dr. K. Krishna Murthy, Prof. K.S. Behra and Thomas Donaldson for going through this work and for offering various suggestions in improving this work. We wish to acknowledge the help rendered by Sri Madabathula Appa Rao, Steno-typist for neatly typing the manuscript. We are greatly beholden to Dr. Agam Prasad for having readily accepted the book for publication and producing it in a short time.

**Contents and Sample Pages**