The Ancient Ruins - Lakkundi

Lakkundi or Lokkugundi was a major city till 14th Century now reduced to a mere village in Gadag district in Karnataka with ruins from 12th Century. It was a major economic center in South India with mint operations. By 12th Century it had many Hindu and Jain temples consecrated here along with public utilities such as stepped wells Musukina Bavi (Bavi- well) the largest one near Manikeshwara Temple,  Chatter Bavi and Kanne Bavi are the other two excavated so far.  There are multiple temples to name a few Kasivishwesvar, Mallikarjuna, Lakshminarayana, Manikeshwara, Naganatha, Kumbheshvara, Nanneshwara, Someshwara, Narayana, Nilakanteshwara, Brhma Jinalaya Jain Temple etc. There are ruins of more than 50 temples from Kalyan Chalukya era. As a tourist we should  have spent more time in Lakkundi and explored it but we visited the place on our way back from Hampi to Hubbali. (It is around 70 kms from Hubbali). Lakkundi is an important site for understanding Vesera style of architecture a combination of Nagara and Dravidian styles. 

No wonder, Lakkundi theme was selected to represent Karnataka's artistic and cultural heritage at the R-Day parade on 26th January 2025.    

In a short time available to us we could visit a few places and the museum, which is worth a visit. The first halt was at Nanneshwara temple and Kasivisvesvara temple which are right next to each other. 

Nannesvara (not to be misunderstood with Sant Dynaneshwar) temple, a Shiva temple,  stands a short distance to the west of Kasivisvesvara and consists of a garbhagriha, Antarala (a small antechamber located between Garbhagriha and the mandapa), Gudhamandapa (a hall or a close pavilion which can be used as a covered assembly place) and Mukhmandapa (front space or a porch serving as a transition between temple entrance and sanctum). The temples are made of soapstone and are constructed during second half of the 11th century. The Shikhara over the garbhagriha has three talas (levels or storied) with a kalasha at the top. which according to scholars is strange and unusual as it does not match the other architectural details of the temple. The vimana is decorated with pilasters having Dravid and nagara towers in miniature form. Shikhara kind of super structure is built above the central niches. In the second and third tala the nagara super structure is repeated. The architectural decoration of Antarala and Gudhamandapa are almost same like that of vimana with slight variations and have large Panjara-roof (specific type of a decorative enclosure or a lattice structure) and kapota (dove or pigeon often used in decorative carvings or structures)  of same size. The gudhamandapa has two doorways; the one on southern side has a chadya (chajja - overhanging projection or canopies) consisting of two wall pillars with decorative base block.

The next is  Kasivisvesvara Temple close to Nanneshwara temple. These two temples are considered to be a great example of 11th-century Chalukyan architecture. The Kasivisvesvara  temple is also known as the "Sun Temple". This is a double shrined temple (dvikuta), one co-axially aligned. The larger shrine faces east and is dedicated to Shiva (Kasivisvesvara or Kashivishwanatha). The somewhat smaller shrine is dedicated to the Hindu sun God Surya (Suryanarayana). They are connected by a ranga-mandapa and a gudha-mandapa. See the intricacies of the design. 

The carvings on temple in clock wise order are Yali on the wall, Gajantlaxmi (on sanctum door),  and Yali on both sides of the entrance steps of Nanneshwar temple. 

Lakkundi's temples are renowned for their exquisite stone carvings and sculptures and hence known as "Cradle of Stone Craft". The perforated stone windows or "Jali" are a distinct feature of the temple architecture, allowing light to filter through while maintaining privacy. Such windows and intricate carving was possible as the temples were built using greenish-blue chloritic schist (soapstone), a unique material not used in other regions such as Aihole and Pattadakal. 

Next we visited Brahma Jinalaya Jain Temple the largest Jain temple in Lakkundi, the oldest of the large temples (1007 CE).

The original defaced idol of  Mahavira is kept in the court yard and another Golden statue is placed in the temple and regularly worshiped. Here we saw tourist police, a police person entrusted to protect the monument from notorious tourist who are interested in writing their names or draw pictures on the walls. To our surprise the tourist police was so well informed that he acted as ready guide giving us the information about the temple.  

Lakkundi is a small place and with the bus at our disposal we shortly reached the next destination Manikeshwara temple, another Shiva temple with attached Pushkarni, in the form of stepped well. 

Manikeshwara temple is in Kalyan Chalukya architectural style. It is a Trikuta temple (with triple garbhagriha (sanctums) with 3 deities Shiva, Parvati and Ganesha).

Musukina Bavi or the stepped well near Manikeshwara temple as its Pushkarni (sacred water tank for the temple use) is well (no pun intended) maintained. 

Tourists have to buy an entry ticket to visit Stepped well and Manikeshwar temple along with the museum, Lankkudi Heritage Museum. This newly designed museum features well-lit, clean facilities and showcases a captivating collection of sculptures and artifacts from the Kalyani Chalukyan and Rashtrakuta eras. Entry is conveniently priced at just Rs. 25, making it accessible for all who seek to delve into the historical significance of the region. It is a must visit destination. 

Few beautiful artifacts from the museum 

One can easily spend time in the museum reading the small capsules of information. The staff is very courteous and helpful. Overall it was a nice experience. Even though the museum is small enough to cover in an hour or so the artifacts are worth the appreciation.  

This was our last stop before proceeding to Hubbali and  end of our  memorable tour. 

Those who are reading this, I thank them for patiently reading my Hampi series completely. I know it was lengthy but the experience was so overwhelming that I could not resist sharing it in toto. 

Actually there could have been more to it as I resisted from going behind the scenes. Such as who conceptualized these temples, monuments? Who designed and executed them? How long artisans must have taken to build these awesome sculptures, temples and monuments? How many generations must have worked to achieve this? How they must have managed all this with the scarcity of resources or the limited logistics, which even today may take years to complete? and last but not the least who where those heartless individuals who were capable of inhuman act of destroying, defacing them? 

Kudos to those unsung artisans, their work and the human spirit!!