India has a wealth of temples and sites of various kinds that exhibit astronomical features.  One of these is a simple ‘solar alcove’ that is located at Badami near the valley of the Malaprabha River in Karnataka state.  This unique rock-cut feature is at the base of an enormous isolated rock, and according to Srikumar Menon (see pages 373–390 in this issue of JAHH) was designed to received the rays of the rising Sun every single day of the year, weather permitting.  Srikumar believes that this “… could be the first ever Sun-facing shrine executed in stone in India.” (p. 388), and he associates it with a local leper king who may have lived there and bathed in an adjacent lake.  In the region surrounding the solar alcove are many temples, structures, rock-cut sanctuaries and carvings relating to the Hindu, Jain and Buddhist religions, and impressive photographs of these are scattered throughout Srikumar’s paper. 

India has a wealth of temples and sites of various kinds that exhibit astronomical features.  One of these is a simple ‘solar alcove’ that is located at Badami near the valley of the Malaprabha River in Karnataka state.  This unique rock-cut feature is at the base of an enormous isolated rock, and according to Srikumar Menon (see pages 373–390 in this issue of JAHH) was designed to received the rays of the rising Sun every single day of the year, weather permitting.  Srikumar believes that this “… could be the first ever Sun-facing shrine executed in stone in India.” (p. 388), and he associates it with a local leper king who may have lived there and bathed in an adjacent lake.  In the region surrounding the solar alcove are many temples, structures, rock-cut sanctuaries and carvings relating to the Hindu, Jain and Buddhist religions, and impressive photographs of these are scattered throughout Srikumar’s paper.