Lakkundi, in the Gadag District of Karnataka

Lakkundi

Did you know that Lakkundi, in the Gadag District of Karnataka, once a prosperous town now a village, is an ancient heritage site well known for a plethora of ruined Hindu and Jain Temples of the Chalukyan architectural style?

Lakkundi , also known even prior to 10th-century as Lokkugundi city in Gadag district of Karnataka, with innumerable temples of Hindu and Jain denomination of Chalukyan architectural style, even flourished as one of the capitals of the Hoysalas in the 11th-12th centuries became a glorifed village due to Islamic depradations of the region. The village was re-discovered by Brtish archeologists only in the 19th-century rediscovered with over 50 temple ruins step wells and water reservoirs, spread around the small village in a deplorable state. The ruined state of the temples was attributed to depradations brought about by the Islamic Sultanates in and after the 14th-century who sought loot and political dominance over the South Indian Hindu kingdoms. During the period of its glory Lakkundi was one of the most important centers for the study of Kalyana Chalukya era Hindu architecture, the so-called Lakkundi-school of architects and craftsmen. The major Lakkundi temples have now been restored, with some ruins displayed in a local sculpture gallery (museum) and sheds near the temples. These are maintained by the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India).

Among the major temples are the Brahma Jinalaya (oldest), Mallikarjuna, Lakshminarayana, Manikeshwara, Naganatha, Kumbheshvara, Nanneshwara, Someshwara, Narayana, Nilakanteshwara, Kasivisesvara (most sophisticated, ornate), Virabhadhara, Virupaksha, and others.

The restored Hindu temples, the late Chalukya structures, are built entirely of finely worked grey-green schists. The basements have deeply cut mouldings, slender wall pilasters frame niches headed with tower-like pediemnts of different designs. The mandapas and porches have columns with both finely lathe turuned and multifaceted shafts. They support decorated beams and corbelled ceilings; the richly encrusted doorways are flanked by perforated screens incorporating miniature figures of foliate motifs. Porches have balcony seating overhung by steeply angle eaves.

Among the restored Hindu temples, the best known is the Kasivisvesvara temple and sometimes called Kashivishvanatha temple which is one of the most ornate temples of Karnataka; it has a recorded inscription of 1087 CE. This temple has two sanctums facing each other and sharing a mandapa. The larger sanctum is dedicated to Shiva, the other to planetary god Surya (Sun). It is notable not only for the three dimensional miniature reliefs and fine details of its artwork, the temple is also notable, for integrating all three major styles of Hindu temple architecture – the Nagara, the Vesara and the Dravida. It is said that that the profusion of decorations may have been added to parts of the temple at a later period, in 11th and 12 th centruries, with the end of Chola invasions of the Calukyan territory. It is highly ornate and most sophisticated among the Lakkundi temples. and is said to have recived further embelishments during Hoysala period.

The Jain basadi, known as the Brahma Jainalaya, sometimes called as the Greater Jain Temple of Lakkundi, located on the southwest side of the village, is a 11th century Jain temple. The basadi, now cleaned and restored, is notable for its reliefs depicting Jaina artwork, statues of the Mahavira, Parsvanatha and Tirthankaras and the two Hindu statues of 4-headed Brahma and Saraswati inside its inner mandapa. other Tirthankaras. Its sanctuary walls rhythmically expand outwards in shallow projections that are repeated in the parapet of miniature roof forms above. The five storeyed pyramidal tower is capped with a square roof. Enclosed and open mandapas, the latter with projections on three sides , adjoint the sanctruay.