The Temple of Muktesvara at Caudadanapura

A little known 12th-13th century temple in Dharwar  District, Karnataka

 VASUNDHARA FILLIOZAT Architecture by PIERRE-SYLVAIN FILLIOZAT  Foreword by M. C. JOSHI

1995, xv+191pp. line drawings, col. and b&w plates, bibl., indexes ISBN: 81-7017-327-2; Rs 700 (HB) 

[ MULTIMEDIA PROJECT | PREFACE FROM THE BOOK ]

The northern part of Karnataka is one of the richest areas of lndia in monuments of great artistic value. It was subjected to the rule of several royal families, CāLukyas of Kalyāṇa, Kaḷacūris and Senas in the tenth to thirteenth centuries CE which has been a period of great cultural refinement. It was the time of the greatest expansion of the Kālāmukha-Lakulaśaiva movements, and of the rise of Vīraśaivism.

The temple of Mukteśvara at Cauḍadānapura (Dharwar district) is a beautiful representative of the style and the high culture of that time. Its history is known to us, thanks to a set of seven long inscriptions, composed in literary medieval Kannada, engraved with great care on large steles. It is a single cella temple in what is popularly known as Jakkaṇācārī style. The present study contains a historical introduction, the complete edition, translation and interpretation of the inscriptions, an architectural description, with a graphic survey and an iconographical analysis.