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.

Photograph

Earliest republishable photograph in this record.

East front

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.

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

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What changed?

Each line keeps the confidence of its source. Conflicts are not collapsed.

Published as an early Chalukya temple A secondary account dates the temple to the early eighth century and says a fortified lookout was added after the thirteenth century. Neither date is taken from an inscription edition in this corpus. The 1855 photograph shows the east front as it stood then. Early 8th century, as reported · Documented fact · Medium confidence

Evidence summary

Counts are records in this corpus, including gaps.

1 Republishable photographs

0 Interior photographs

0 Diagrams

1 Documents

About the temple

The Durga Temple is an apsidal temple at Aihole. A secondary account says it was dedicated to Surya, and that the name Durga comes from a later fortified lookout on the roof, not from the goddess. This is the temple chosen for the oldest named photograph this corpus can show. Thomas Biggs photographed the east front in 1855. The print is plate LXXII, “IWULLEE East Front of the Temple,” in Architecture in Dharwar and Mysore. The caption’s district name is Bijapur. The present district is Bagalkot. An unidentified temple photograph at the Getty is catalogued to 1843–1845. It is earlier, and it is not used, because the building is not named. Biggs also photographed the Virupaksha Temple at Pattadakal in 1855. That print is the same year and is not stored.

Primary deity: Surya, in the secondary account cited here

A secondary account calls the temple early 8th century. That date is not checked against an inscription edition here. The stored photograph is 1855.