About twenty miles
east of Badami, in the state of Karnataka, lies a historical site.
Pattadakal was an important urban center and a sister city
to the Chalukya capital at Badami under the Chalukya empire.
The site is significant for a collection of temples erected
in a variety of architectural styles throughout that period, despite being
largely vacant now.
The Virupaksha temple, built during King Vikramaditya's
reign in 740 C.E., clearly demonstrates the influence of the Dravida
architectural style from southern India: a largely low and extended profile
with a series of tiered roofs above the main sanctuary.
It is said to have been inspired by the temples of
Kanchipuram, which Vikramaditya had conquered and brought back to Pattadakal
with him.
At the same time, there are temples that demonstrate the
early stages of the Nagara style, with a sequence of upswept towers (shikharas)
with the highest tower immediately above the image of the temple's chief god.
The Galaganatha temple, devoted to the deity Shiva, is the
greatest example of this, with a towering vertical tower situated atop a
bigger, cube-shaped foundation.
