Aivalli (Aihole)
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts.Many units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Aivalli (Aihole)
Old village in the Hungund taluka of Bijapur District, Bombay, situated in 16° 1' N. and 75 degree 52' E., on the Malprabha, 13 miles south-west of Hungund. Population (1901), 1,638. An axe-shaped rock is shown on the river-bank in commemora tion of the legend of Parasu Rama, the sixth incarnation of Vishnu, who is said to have washed his axe on the spot after destroying the whole race of Kshattriyas.
On a rock in the river are Parasu Rama's foot prints. Near these is a fine old temple of Ramling. An inscription is carved on the rock on the river-bank. On the hill facing the village is a temple dedicated to Meguti, built in the Dravidian style. On the outside of the east wallof the temple is an important stone inscription of the early Chalukya dynasty, dated A.D. 634. The temple, now- known as the Durga temple, is the only structure in India which preserves a trace of the changes through which the Buddhist cave temple passed in becoming a Jain and Brahmanical structural temple. This also bears an inscription on the outer gateway.
Two cave-temples, one Jain, the other Brahmanical, with images of their respective creed carved in them, are of great interest.
[Indian Antiquary, vol. v, p. 67 ; vol. viii, p. 237 ; Epigraphia Indica, vol. vi, p. 1.]
