Mahakuta Group of Temples (Mahakuteshwara Temple)

The Mahakuta pillar, also called the Dharma-jayastambha, is a sixteen-sided red sandstone column about 4.4 m tall with a Sanskrit inscription in old Kannada script. Wikipedia, following the epigraphist John Fleet, explains that it was set up in the reign of the Chalukya king Mangalesha to announce the gift of ten more villages to the Shiva temple of Makuteshvaranatha, which already existed. The date is read variously between 595 and 602 CE. The pillar was found near the temples in the 19th century and moved to Bijapur around 1920; it is now in the Archaeological Museum at Vijayapura.

A second, Kannada inscription is carved in the porch of the Mahakuteshwara temple. Wikipedia attributes it to Vinapoti, a companion of King Vijayaditya (late 7th to early 8th century), and records that it describes gifts of rubies, a silver umbrella and land to the deity. Together with the style of the buildings, which resembles the temples of nearby Aihole, these records are the basis for dating the complex.

Architecture and sacred features

Mahakuta is notable for building temples in two styles side by side. Wikipedia explains that the Mahakuteshwara and Mallikarjuna temples, the largest in the complex, are in the southern dravida style, with a tiered tower capped by a dome-like top, while several smaller shrines, such as the Sangameshvara temple, have the curvilinear nagara tower of the north. The mixing of the two traditions in this region is seen as an early stage of what later became the Vesara style.

Incredible India describes the Mahakuteshwara temple as built of red sandstone with finely carved pillars and towers. Wikipedia's illustrations also show a sculpture of Ardhanarishvara, the half-Shiva, half-Parvati form, among the carvings at the site.