CENTER FOR ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY

Subject: Temple complex amidst forest and glen complex

Subject: View of temple that is now colored

Subject: View

Subject: Daksha and Matrika shrine in front

Subject: Entrance, Two Dakshas (goat-headed figures) acting as guardians

Subject: Glen leading to complex

Subject: Glen leading to complex: Lajja Gauri

Subject: Left half: Four Matrikas

Subject: Right half: Three Matrikas

Subject: Lajja Gauri carved in relief from the rock floor of a natural grotto at the Lakulisa temple at Siddhanakolla. This image of Lajja Gauri is lotus headed with a human female body. A cloth is threaded through her legs and behind her back, which is a detail of her iconography consistently included by the Early Chalukya artists. She wears anklets, bracelets, channavira (cross-chest belt), and has her feet flexed up, showing their soles. The legs are in uttanapad (birth giving) pose, the arms are held up by the sides of the lotus head with a bud in each hand and the torso includes breasts. The Chalukyan image is in its original location and is visited by childless women or couples seeking the blessing of fertility.

Subject: Lajja Gauri: This representation of Lajja Gauri is in the form of uttanapad (birth giving position) pot-goddess. It is personified purna kumbha, or brimming vase of fortune. The legs are joined to a truncated torso that may be perceived either as the pudendum, belly, and lower rib cage of a female figure or a traditional purna kumbha. The potlike lower torso is topped by a lotus flower. The vase brimming with lotus flowers is a traditional symbol of fortune, life and procreative power.

Subject: Lajja Gauri carved on path to the Lakulisa temple at Siddhanakolla. This image of Lajja Gauri is lotus headed with a human female body. A cloth is threaded through her legs and behind her back, which is a detail of her iconography consistently included by the Early Chalukya artists. She wears anklets, bracelets, channavira (cross-chest belt), and has her feet flexed up, showing their soles. The legs are in uttanapad (birth giving) pose, the arms are held up by the sides of the lotus head with a bud in each hand and the torso includes breasts. The Chalukyan image is in its original location and is visited by childless women or couples seeking the blessing of fertility.