page_title: Western Chalukya Empire
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Western Chalukya Empire / Culture / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: This photograph was taken by self (Dinesh Kannambadi) at the Saraswati temple in en:Gadag, Karnataka state, India in July 2007. This is an example of Gadag style pillars built by the en:Western Chalukyas (Kalyani Chalukyas)
context_page_description: The Western Chalukya Empire ruled most of the western Deccan, South India, between the 10th and 12th centuries. This Kannadiga dynasty is sometimes called the Kalyani Chalukya after its regal capital at Kalyani, today's Basavakalyan in the modern Bidar District of Karnataka state, and alternatively the Later Chalukya from its theoretical relationship to the 6th-century Chalukya dynasty of Badami. The dynasty is called Western Chalukyas to differentiate from the contemporaneous Eastern Chalukyas of Vengi, a separate dynasty. Prior to the rise of these Chalukyas, the Rashtrakuta empire of Manyakheta controlled most of Deccan and Central India for over two centuries. In 973, seeing confusion in the Rashtrakuta empire after a successful invasion of their capital by the ruler of the Paramara dynasty of Malwa, Tailapa II, a feudatory of the Rashtrakuta Dynasty ruling from Bijapur region defeated his overlords and made Manyakheta his capital. The dynasty quickly rose to power and grew into an empire under Someshvara I who moved the capital to Kalyani.
context_section_description: The reign of Western Chalukya dynasty was an important period in the development of Deccan architecture. The architecture designed during this time served as a conceptual link between the Badami Chalukya Architecture of the 8th century and the Hoysala architecture popularised in the 13th century. The art of the Western Chalukyas is sometimes called the "Gadag style" after the number of ornate temples they built in the Tungabhadra River-Krishna River doab region of present-day Gadag district in Karnataka. The dynasty's temple building activity reached its maturity and culmination in the 12th century with over a hundred temples built across the Deccan, more than half of them in present-day central Karnataka. Apart from temples, the dynasty's architecture is well known for the ornate stepped wells (Pushkarni) which served as ritual bathing places, a few of which are well preserved in Lakkundi. These stepped well designs were later incorporated by the Hoysalas and the Vijayanagara empire in the coming centuries.
  The Kasivisvesvara Temple at Lakkundi (Gadag district), the Dodda Basappa Temple at Dambal (Gadag district), the Mallikarjuna Temple at Kuruvatti (Bellary district), the Kallesvara Temple at Bagali (Davangere district), the Siddhesvara Temple at Haveri (Haveri district), the Amrtesvara Temple at Annigeri (Dharwad district), the Mahadeva Temple at Itagi (Koppal district), the Kaitabheshvara Temple at Kubatur, and the Kedareshvara Temple at Balligavi are the finest examples produced by the later Chalukya architects. The 12th-century Mahadeva Temple with its well executed sculptures is an exquisite example of decorative detail. The intricate, finely crafted carvings on walls, pillars and towers speak volumes about Chalukya taste and culture. An inscription outside the temple calls it "Emperor of Temples" (devalaya chakravarti) and relates that it was built by Mahadeva, a commander in the army of king Vikramaditya VI. The Kedareswara Temple (1060) at Balligavi is an example of a transitional Chalukya-Hoysala architectural style. The Western Chalukyas built temples in Badami and Aihole during their early phase of temple building activity, such as Mallikarjuna Temple, the Yellamma Temple and the Bhutanatha group of Temples.
  The vimana of their temples (tower over the shrine) is a compromise in detail between the plain stepped style of the early Chalukyas and the decorative finish of the Hoysalas. To the credit of the Western Chalukya architects is the development of the lathe turned (tuned) pillars and use of Soapstone (Chloritic Schist) as basic building and sculptural material, a very popular idiom in later Hoysala temples. They popularised the use of decorative Kirtimukha (demon faces) in their sculptures. Famous architects in the Hoysala kingdom included Chalukyan architects who were natives of places such as Balligavi. The artistic wall decor and the general sculptural idiom was dravidian architecture. This style is sometimes called Karnata dravida, one of the notable traditions in Indian architecture.
caption: Ornate pillars at Saraswati temple in Gadag city, Karnataka
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