Kasivisvesvara Temple, Lakkundi ಲಕ್ಕುಂಡಿ ಕಾಶಿವಿಶ್ವೇಶ್ವರ

Documented history

Lakkundi had about fifty temples and thirty-five inscriptions when the Dharwar Gazetteer described it in 1884; tradition credited them to the mythic architect Jakanacharya. Karnataka Tourism counts more than 70 monuments and 101 stepwells, from a town that flourished under the Kalyana Chalukyas and Hoysalas.³⁴

Cousens (1926) called Kasivisvesvara the most elaborately finished temple in the village. A beam in the hall bears an inscription of the thirteenth year of Vikramaditya VI, 1087; because that part is plain, he thought it might be the only remnant of an earlier temple damaged in an eleventh-century Chola invasion, the richly carved rest being rebuilt after the Hoysala Veera Ballala made Lakkundi his capital in 1193.¹

Scholars’ dates range from 1020–1030 to about 1075 or before 1087. The temple is in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India.²

Architecture

A larger Shiva sanctum and a smaller Surya sanctum face each other across a shared mandapa. Cousens wrote that here “the Chalukyan builders reached their high watermark in decorative architecture”, with lace-like, deeply undercut carving round the doorways.¹²