For example, it is close to historic temples found in Dambal, Kukkanur, Gadag, Annigeri, Mulgund, Harti, Laksmesvara, Kalkeri, Savadi, Hooli, Rona, Sudi, Koppal, and Itagi.

Lakkundi is phonetically shortened name of the historic city of Lokkigundi, a name found in inscriptions in the village and those quite far in southern Karnataka and Maharashtra.

[6] The earliest surviving inscription was discovered by British archaeologists on a stone slab near Kanner Bhanvi – a step well in Lakkundi.

James Fergusson – the 19th-century Scottish historian known for his archaeological and architectural studies in India, reported over 30 more inscriptions from Lakkundi, in Kannada and Sanskrit, most of which range between the 11th and 12th century.

Lakkundi flowered and grew with the Shiva-tradition Hindu monarch Satyasraya Irivabedanga – the successor and son of Taila II who came to power in 997 or 998 CE.

Lakkundi and several historic towns to its north – such as Rona, Sudi, Kradugu now known as Gadag, Hooli and others – attracted a burst of religious, cultural and literary flowering from the 11th to 13th century, with ever more sophisticated temple architectures, Vidyadana (charity supported schools) and public works such as step wells.

[12][13] After the 13th-century, there is an abrupt end to all evidence of new public works, temples, inscriptions and other indirect signs of economic prosperity in Lakkundi.

The colonial era historians and archaeologists such as James Campbell and Henry Cousens, led by the hypothesis of Colonel Meadows Taylor – an influential and prolific writer on the history of South India, suggested two periods of construction.

Henry Cousens published an early opinion of a two stage construction in 1926 based on Colonel Meadows' reliance on an exaggerated tale of destruction and victories by the Chola court.

The temple sits on a molded platform, one provided by steps to the rangamandapa as well as the gudhamandapa, in a manner similar to the Rashtrakuta style of Hindu architecture.

The superstructure above the sanctums are damaged, but the portions that survive when studied with the pitha and outer structure, indicate an exceptional approach to integrating the architecture from the northern parts of subcontinent (Nagara), west (Maru-Gurjara), south (Dravida) and central–east (Vesara).

This is evidenced by the fact that the pilasters are decorated with miniature aedicules from North Indian Hindu temples, namely the Sekhari-Nagara and Bhumija-Nagara.

The surviving examples of these stretch from Aihole, Pattadakal to Alampur, Srisailam and Biccavolu regions (north Karnata, Andhradesa and Telingana).

[note 3] These show artisans and architects from the different regions and traditions of the Indian subcontinent sharing ideas, creating and innovating new temple designs where sections of the temple, including the towering superstructure over the sanctums combine and improve upon the north and south Indian designs (spire, sikhara, vimana).

[17] The larger shrine has a three storey (tritala) vimana with beautifully rendered wall-pilasters, one with a bifacial pallavi and bharaputraka-figures in the upper section.

The artwork in these kutastambhas and toranas are unique in their details around the superstructure, thus enlivening the space framed between each salilantara-depression as one circumambulates the shrines.

Scholars such as Cousens, Campbell, Dhaky in different words call these as, " exquisitely carved and carefully finished" and one where the 11th-century artists achieved on the stone the craftsmanship one expects on "bronze and silver".

[3][27] It is, states Cousens, "delicate work of perforated filigree with fine tracery", completed such that the innumerable interstices cast a natural shadow.

The blackness of this shadow accentuates the artwork on the stone; just how the artists used their tools and worked these small holes and forms, states Cousens, is "marvellous".

[28] The bottom of the pillars are carved in three dimensions (damaged), with framed sections highlighting Hindu motifs and depicting the epic legends.

In addition are elaborately carved parallel sakhas, but instead of artha scenes of people, they show dancing and cheerful apsaras and godlings.

Other layers show nature (flowering creepers, birds, peacocks, elephants), mithuna (amorous couples cuddling up, love scenes), and padma mala.

[30] Above the lower cornice, the entablature consists of small figures, now numbering only three (must have been eleven originally) standing under cusped arches.

[31] The ornamentation on the outer wall of the shrine consists of prominent central niches above which is a miniature tower (shikhara or aedicule) which is purely nagara (north Indian) in style and cuts through the principal cornice.

These schools were in the centre of cultural and temple-building activity of the Western Chalukya Empire near the Tungabhadra river region, where they built numerous monuments.

[32] Lakkundi in particular was the location of the mature phase of the Western Chalukya architecture,[33] and the Kasivisvesvara temple marks a high point of these achievements.

[34] According to Cousens, the Kasivisvesvara temple epitomises the shift in Chalukyan artistic achievements, towards sharper and crisper stone work not seen in earlier constructions, taking full advantage of the effect of light and shade.