Ikkeri

01The Nayakas who stood

The Keladi chiefs began as Vijayanagara governors in the hills of Shivamogga. Sadashiva Nayaka moved their seat from Keladi to Ikkeri in the mid-16th century, and when Vijayanagara broke in 1565 they kept their kingdom and grew it, holding the pepper ports of the Kanara coast against the Portuguese and Bijapur. Their gold coins, the Ikkeri pagodas, passed in trade along the whole western coast. In 1639 Virabhadra Nayaka moved the capital again, to Bidanur, for safety. It was from Bidanur in 1689 that Rani Chennamma of Keladi sheltered Chhatrapati Rajaram on his flight to Jinji and held off Aurangzeb’s army.

02Aghoreshvara

The Aghoreshvara temple is built entirely of granite, broad and low, mixing Hoysala, Vijayanagara and Dravida forms with something of the Kerala roof. The open mandapa has elephant balustrades and a large black Nandi sits in its own pavilion facing the sanctum. A separate shrine to Parvati stands beside it. Of the palace and city of Ikkeri almost nothing is left above ground, and the temple sits among fields and areca groves with the quiet of a village.

The life of this place