The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c14.s2.1

c14.s2.1

The most elaborately finished temple of all those in the village, and one of the most ornate in the Kanarese districts, is the temple of Kāśiviśvēśvara. It is possibly one of those which were damaged during the Chōla invasion, in the eleventh century, when several temples at Lakshmēśvara were destroyed but afterwards rebuilt. On a beam in the hall is an inscription, dated in the thirteenth year of the reign of Tribhuvanamalla (Vikramāditya VI.), which corresponds to A.D. 1087; but as this part of the temple, and the ceiling above the beam, are very plain indeed, compared with the profusion of decoration about the doorways and the exterior of the temple, it may be that this is the only portion of the original temple left standing by the Chōḷas. The rest of the temple, as it now stands, certainly looks later than many of those to be described further on. The bulk of the inscriptions, of which there are very many at Lakkuṇḍi, are dated after A.D. 1170. We know that the Hoysaḷa chief, Viraballāḷadēva, was established in this, his newly-acquired capital of Lokkiguṇḍi, in 1193, having, a short time previously, and while acting as his father's general, wrested the country from the Yadavas. It is thus more than probable that he began to re-build the temples that were destroyed and to embellish his new capital (Plates LXII, LXV—LXXII).