Sculptures of Shamlaji temple are the great examples of Chalukyan art. They not only represents spiritual ideologies but also the way of living the life during that period. Elegantly carved walls and pillars of the temple depicts various stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata along with Puranas. Various deities of Hinduism are carved in details, their weapons, their mounts, their ideologies.. everything is well presented here.
Sculptures of Shamlaji is been a niche topic for many books and archaeologist. Along with many others, Sara Schastok focuses in detail on the art of the temple and sculpture groups here in her book ‘Śāmalājī Sculptures and 6th Century Art in Western India‘ which was published in 1985.
I would try to present you the art pieces through various chapters here. A single idol carved on the wall can take 100 pages for explanation. A topic which leaded to hundreds of books with thousands of the pages, I am sure can not be captured in few articles 🙂
Gomukha, the outlet for tirtha from Garbhagriha, is one of the best art piece of the temple. Makara is carved on the gomukha and two elephants folding their trunks with each other supporting the makara. Tirtha poured into a small tank placed beneath the gomukha.
A continuous border of carved elephants creates picture like these elephants are holding the seven storey temple on their heads.
