Western Chalukya Empire
The centre of cultural and temple-building activity of the Western Chalukya Empire lay in the Tungabhadra river region, where large medieval workshops built numerous monuments. These monuments, regional variants of pre-existing dravida (South Indian) temples, defined the "Karnata dravida" tradition. Lakkundi in particular was the location of the mature phase of the Western Chalukya architecture, and the Kasivisvesvara temple marks a high point of these achievements. According to Henry Cousens, it is one of the most ornate temples in the Kannada spoken region of India.