Durga Temple, Aihole

Aihole, Bagalkot District, Karnataka Early Chalukya temple, described as originally dedicated to Surya

Served from the stored corpus. Last scan Sep 28, 2026. Next scan Oct 28, 2026.

“IWULLEE East Front of the Temple”

Caption of Thomas Biggs’s 1855 plate. Not an inscription on the building.

East front

Historic photograph · exterior · 1855 · High confidence

Albumen photograph from 1855 by Thomas Biggs showing the east front of the Durga Temple at Aihole.

Oldest named temple photograph stored in this corpus. Thomas Biggs made it in 1855. It shows the east front of the Durga Temple at Aihole. An unidentified temple photograph catalogued at 1843–1845 is earlier and is not this building. The Virupaksha Temple at Pattadakal was also photographed by Biggs in 1855, and that print is not stored.

Thomas Biggs, 1855. Open-access file from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: Durga Temple at Aihole, east front, 1855 · Open source

Identification note

encyclopedia · Retrieved 27 September 2026 · paraphrase

The article identifies an early temple at Aihole, describes an apsidal plan, and explains the name Durga from a later lookout rather than from the goddess. The 1855 photograph is a separate source.

Open source