Virupaksha Temple, Pattadakal ಪಟ್ಟದಕಲ್ಲು ವಿರೂಪಾಕ್ಷ

Documented history

Pattadakal’s nine Hindu temples and a Jain sanctuary mark the high point of an art that, under the Chalukyas in the seventh and eighth centuries, blended northern and southern Indian forms; UNESCO singles out the Virupaksha, built about 740 by Queen Lokamahadevi to commemorate her husband’s victory over the kings of the south.¹

Henry Cousens (1926) reads the temple’s inscriptions: first called Lokesvara, it was built by Lokamahadevi, senior queen of Vikramaditya II, south of the older Vijayesvara (Sangamesvara) temple, while her sister and junior queen Trailokyamahadevi built the neighbouring temple now called Mallikarjuna. The inscription recording this is on the Lakshmi-kambha pillar set between the three shrines.²

Another inscription names the chief architect, Gunda Anivaritacharya. The temple is still in active worship, and Ellora’s Kailasa was modelled on it. (Map coordinates are those of the Pattadakal group.)³