Pattadakal Temple

Pattadakal

Pattadakal saw the Badami Chalukya art in its full bloom. It is 22 km away from Badami and 514 km from Bangalore. Here the best temples of the style, the Virupaksha and the Mallikarjuna are seen. These were built by the queens of Vikramaditya II (734-44) in memory of his victorious march against Kanchi, the Pallava capital, and the temples were named by them after themselves as the Lokeshwara (by Lokadevi) and Trailokeshwara (by Trailokadevi), which came to be known as the Virupaksha and the Mallikarjuna respectively. The two magnificent temples with their nicely engraved lively figures on walls and the massive square pillars are in sand stone. Pattadakal itself was known as Kisuvolal (`Red Town') as the sand stone here is reddish in colour.

The Sangameshwara, Chandrashekhara, Jambuling and Kadasideeshwara are the other major temples here, and Pattadakal has also a Jaina basadi of Rashtrakuta times with two beautiful elephants in this front. The Galaganath here which is dilapidated, has caurvilinear (rekhanagara) shikhara.

Getting here:
Pattadakal is well connected by road and rail to Bangalore and Mysore. Regular buses ply from Bijapur to Pattadakal.