On the flat top of Meguti Hill the stone temple stands where a man can look down on the red earth and the other temples of Aihole. Men raised it in 634–635 CE, in the reign of the Early Western Chalukya king Pulakeshin II. A Sanskrit inscription on the eastern wall, composed by the Jain poet Ravikirti, records that he built this stone abode of Jinendra. The letters give the date in the Saka year 556. The temple faces north and is made of sandstone.
The inscription is a prashasti. It praises Pulakeshin II and lists his victories, among them the defeat of Harshavardhana of Kanauj. Ravikirti compares his own skill in verse to that of Kalidasa and Bharavi. That single comparison places both poets before the year 634. The record also notes the grant of six villages for the temple’s upkeep. The last two lines appear to have been added later.
The building is plain compared with the richer temples of the site, yet the base carries gavakshas and carved reliefs. A pillared mukhamandapa stands at the front. The joints and the simpler carving show that this porch was added after the main body was finished. The shikhara is gone, lost or removed as happened to most of the Aihole temples. Inside, the doorway of the sanctum has a simple pañcaśākhā
frame. Later walls divided part of the walking path into chambers. A seated Tirthankara image remains in the shrine. An image of Ambika, called Kushmandi in the Jain tradition, was found here and is now kept in the Aihole museum.
A visitor sees the place best after climbing the hill past the two-storeyed Buddhist monument that stands on the slope below. From the top the other temples of Aihole lie in the red earth, and beyond them the road leads to Badami and Pattadakal.
Significance
- The 634–635 CE inscription is one of the principal epigraphic sources for the early history of the Western Chalukyas and for the reign of Pulakeshin II.
- It supplies a firm terminus ante quem of 634 CE for the poets Kalidasa and Bharavi.
- Because of the dated inscription, Meguti is one of the earliest securely dated structural temples in the Deccan and serves as a chronological anchor for the study of Early Chalukya architecture.
- The presence of a Jain temple and a nearby Buddhist monument on the same hill records the co-existence of multiple traditions at Aihole in the seventh century.
