The city of Bijapur was ruled bu many dynasties like Chalukyas, Mughal, Bahamani rulers. The landscape is covered with great monuments of historical importance built during those dynasty.
During those periods it had a citadel of 6km stretch around the city. Within the citadel are the remains of both Hindu temples and old mosques.
This is thirteenth in the series on the rich cultural heritage of ancient temples in India. They are richly carved and they behold ones attention for their craftsmanship. Some of these temples have carvings of Goddess Lakshmi in various forms. Each of these sculptures are marvel stone in their own right.
In
the Brihadeeshwara Temple at Gangaikondacholapuram on the exterior walls
there is a magnificent larger than life sculpture of Lakshmi. On the
Lotus flower in the sitting posture with 4 hands every minute details
have been beautifully carved.
In the Kailasha Temple at Ellora, there is a beautiful sculpture of Lakshmi surrounded by elephants. Here she is known as Gajalakshmi.
There are many more such sculptures of the Goddess in the various temples decorating the exterior walls. Here we see some of those sculptures. First one is at Brihadeshwar Temple at Tanjore. The second one again the larger than life sculpture is at Kailasha Temple, Ellora. The third one is at Srirangapattana Temple where Laksmi is sitting at the feet of Vishnu. I shall feature more such sculptures as I discover them.
