हिंदीOn this day
Standing

Mahakuta Temples

A walled group of early Chalukya Shiva temples round a spring-fed tank in the hills near Badami, still in worship after fourteen centuries. A pillar inscription of about 600 CE records the grants of the Chalukya king Mangalesha.

Built: 6th–7th century, Chalukyas of BadamiWhere: Karnataka (Bagalkot district)Deity: Bhagwan Shiva as Mahakuteshwara15.93° N, 75.72° E
  1. c. 595–602 CE
Photo: Dineshkannambadi (talk) 03:14, 13 August 2008 (UTC) · CC BY-SA 3.0

01Dakshina Kashi of the Chalukyas

Mahakuta lies in a fold of the sandstone hills five kilometres from Badami. Around the Vishnu Pushkarini, a tank fed by a perennial spring, the Chalukyas raised a cluster of shrines in the late 6th and 7th centuries, the largest the Mahakuteshwara temple with its curved Dravida tower. The Mahakuta pillar inscription, now in the Bijapur museum, dated to about 595–602 CE, records that Mangalesha gave villages to the god here, and lists the conquests of his brother Kirtivarman I. Another inscription records gifts by Vinapoti, a court dancer of King Vijayaditya.

02Bathing in the spring

Pilgrims still bathe in the Pushkarini, where a small shrine with a four-faced linga stands in the water, before taking darshan of Mahakuteshwara. A Shaiva math keeps the worship. The temples are in both Dravida and Nagara forms side by side, as at Aihole and Pattadakal, which makes Mahakuta a key site for the history of Chalukya architecture.

The life of this place

  1. c. 595–602 CEThe Mahakuta pillar inscription records Mangalesha’s grants.
Visiting

About 14 km by road from Badami; combine with Banashankari and Pattadakal.

Nearby

Badami (Vatapi)Standing
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Badami (Vatapi)

Vatapi, capital of the Chalukyas, set in red sandstone cliffs around the Agastya lake. Its four cave temples hold some of the earliest dated Hindu sculpture in the Deccan.

Banashankari Temple, Cholachagudda (Badami)Rebuilt
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Banashankari Temple, Cholachagudda (Badami)

The Devi of the Tilakaranya forest near Badami, kuladevi of the Chalukya kings, worshipped as Shakambhari who fed the world with vegetables in a time of famine. Her January jatra is among the largest in north Karnataka.

PattadakalStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Pattadakal

The coronation town of the Badami Chalukyas on the north-flowing Malaprabha, where northern and southern temple styles stand side by side. Its Virupaksha temple, raised by a queen to mark her husband’s victory over the Pallavas, is still in worship.

AiholeStanding
The Age of Great Kingdoms

Aihole

A village on the Malaprabha with over a hundred temples from the 6th century on, where Chalukya builders tried out the forms of the Hindu temple. On its hill, the Meguti inscription of 634 CE records Pulakeshin II’s victory over Harsha.