The main temple consists of four-shrines that share a common mandapa (hall), each sanctum being a square and aligned to a cardinal direction.

All nine temples are notable for its pyramidal north Indian style Nagara shikhara – likely an influence from Maharashtra and an evidence of active flow of ideas between the southern, central and northern India.

It had a dwara-mantapa to its west and a dwarashobha to its east, but these along with the original compound decoration is now missing except for the door frames and the mantapa-like structure.

Inside the historic praakara were four small shrines at each corner, a design called parivaralayas in Sanskrit texts.

The ninth vimana that opens to the east is different – it is a tritala (three storey) superstructure and is dedicated to goddess Lakshmi, thus making her the primary deity and giving this temple its dedicatory name.

[1] Each of the three vimanas that share a mandapa has an ardha-mantapa (vestibule) connecting it to the central larger square ranga-mantapa.

[4] The Hoysala emblem (the sculpture of a legendary warrior "Sala" fighting a lion) is mounted atop one of the Sukanasi.

Near Kali's shrine, there is stone statue of an emaciated skeleton-like goblin (vetala), a reminder of her horrifying fierceness and power to inflict death.

Other notable artwork are those of Gajalakshmi (form of Lakshmi with elephants on either side), Tandaveshwara and Yoganarasimha (avatars of Vishnu) found on the doorway of the temple.