Originally dedicated to Surya, it has the most embellished and largest relief panels in Aihole depicting artwork of Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Vedic deities.

[1] Apart from its fine carvings, it is notable for its apsidal plan – a rare example among early Chalukyan Hindu temple architecture.

[2][3] Though dedicated to Surya, the temple is now named Durga because a durg or fortified lookout was constructed on top of it after the 13th-century during the wars between Hindu kingdoms and Islamic Sultanates.

Briggs sensed the significance of its art and structure, took the earliest photographs and published them as "Shivite temple in Iwullee".

Fergusson further speculated that it is an example of "inglorious, structural version of a Buddhist caitya hall" that was "appropriated by Brahmanical Hindus".

As other scholars visited and examined other evidence such as the extensive reliefs and panels, the understanding and theories about the Durga temple evolved.

[5][6] According to Tartakov's detailed review of the Durga temple, the inertia of the historic interpretations and the repetition of "stereotyped information" from colonial era scholarship has perpetuated the misunderstandings.

[5][7] According to some scholars such as George Michell, writing before Tartakov's book was published, this 8th-century temple plan derives from rock-cut chaitya hall tradition that existed about a 1000 years earlier in 2nd to 1st-century BCE Buddhist caves.

The rounded ends at the rear or sanctuary end include a total of three layers: the wall of the sanctuary itself, the main temple wall beyond a passageway running behind this, and a pteroma or ambulatory as an open loggia with pillars, running all round the building.

[15] From the front the temple appears much more conventional; two staircases provide access to the porch, with many richly carved relief panels, including roundels with groups of lovers.

The porch gives access to rooms with pillars ('mukhamantapa' and "sabhamantapa") to get into the sanctuary, the heart of the shrine (garba griha).

[1] As the devotee enters the temple, she or he witnesses dvarapalas, along with scenes of artha and kama (mithuna, erotic happy couples) from the everyday life on pillars and pilaster through the mukhamandapa.

These include (along the traditional Hindu-style clockwise circumambulation): According to Dhaky and Meister, some of the "niche figures are of very superior quality".