This photograph was taken at the Veeranarayana temple built by Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana in Gadag city, Karnataka state, India. The pillar is called "Kumaravyasa pillar" ("Kumaravyasa stambha") because it was here, at this pillar, that the great Kannada poet Kumara Vyasa sat to write his epic "Kumaravyasa Bharata" or "Gadugina Bharata", a Kannada language adaptation/version of the Hindu epic Mahabharata.