This dissertation is an analysis and interpretation of the sculptural program of the Lokesvara (Virupaksa) Temple, an 8th century Hindu temple in Karnataka state, India, constructed by the chief queen of the Early Calukya ruler Vikramaditya II to commemorate his three victories over the powerful rival Pallava kingdom, to the southeast. The work reveals the role of the Lokesvara Temple as the formal "stage" for the king's ceremonial life, a testament to his wealth and authority and the vehicle through which his reign was sacralized and reified. My research shows that the iconography of the Lokesvara Temple is dominated by two thems: an emphasis on rajadharma, in which the king is responsible for establishing and maintaining cosmic order through protection of his subjects; and an emphasis on liberation from the sociocosmic order according to the Pasupata idea of dukkanta, the attainment of perfect knowledge and perpetual nearness to Siva, and a philosophical orientation towards Samkhya philosophy and Samkhya-Yoga.

Further, I posit that the most significant meanings of the Lokesvara Temple are embodied in the harmonic balance between the temple proper and its Nandi-mandapa, wherein dualities of esoteric and exoteric, and feminine and masculine, play out. I suggest that the Nandi-mandapa commemorates the temple's patron, Queen Lokamahadevi, and positions her as the temple's primary bhakta, or devotee. The Nandi- mandapa is, I propose, a shrine dedicated to the female principle and conveys a Sakti/Durga religiousity that is distinct from and in contrast to the male deity and the more orthodox, primarily Saivite and royal,/religiousity of the temple proper.

My study is an iconological one in the sense of the term employed by followers of the Warburg school: a reconstruction of an entire program of sculptures as contained within its cultural and artistic context; and an interpretation of the data furnished by a straightforward iconographic reading of each sculpture, establishing the intrinsic meaning and symbolic value of the monument as a whole. The meaning of the monument is made up on not only of its formal characteristics, but takes into account prevailing cultural conventions and precedents at the time and place of manufacture; the religious, philosophical, economic and political principles embedded in its environment; and the needs and wishes of the patron(s). In this model, in addition to an understanding of its formal, stylistic traits, the monument is seen as a cultural document and is interpreted with the aid of variety of data types, including "texts" that were present in the culture at the time of the object's manufacture, other cultural "themes," artistic models and precedents.

This work attempts to unravel the semiotic system of the Lokesvara Temple's sculptural imagery to provide a more complete picture of the history of the Calukyas, their religious beliefs and practices, and their relationship to developing ideologies of kingship in south India than has been published heretofore.