Highlights
- The facing twin sanctums (Shiva and Surya).
- The miniature-tower and perforated-window carving.
- The blend of Dravida and Nagara detail.
The Kasivisvesvara temple is the marquee of Lakkundi, built around 1087 CE as a twin temple whose Shiva and Surya sanctums face each other across a shared mandapa.
Check entry arrangements. Ask temple staff about visitor entry, dress requirements and access to the inner shrine before you travel, especially if you are visiting as a non-Hindu.
Dress respectfully and follow the institution’s admission and photography rules.
Its walls are a lacework of Kalyani-Chalukya carving that blends the Dravida and Nagara idioms — the finest surviving example of the style.
Road km to Gadag; ghat roads and traffic vary — allow extra.
October to February; morning light on the east-facing carving.
Live forecast loads in your browser.
Sun and moon are calculated for this location and shown in IST. Photography windows are the hour around sunrise and sunset; the sunset bearing is degrees clockwise from true north. Moon phase is accurate to about half a day.
Verified hotels, homestays, restaurants, experiences, sights, shops and rentals around Kasivisvesvara Temple, Lakkundi — commission-free, with direct contact. Filter by what you need.

The ASI-operated sculpture gallery interprets inscriptions and portable finds from Lakkundi. Confirm museum opening and photography rules at the entrance.
Book with the place itself. India’s cyber-crime coordination centre warned in April 2025 that convincing copies of hotel and pilgrimage booking sites are being pushed through sponsored search and social ads, taking payment for rooms the property never hears about. Every listing here links to the business’s own contact details and its own Google or Bing profile — we take no commission and sit in nobody’s payment path. If a booking page reached you through an ad, check the address bar against the property’s own site before you pay. Fraud can be reported on cybercrime.gov.in or on 1930.
4 more places around Lakkundi. Open a guide to plan the visit and onward journey.
380 m · 5 min walk
The oldest and largest temple at Lakkundi, an early-11th-century Jain basadi dedicated to Mahavira and built by the poet-patron Attimabbe — a landmark of the Chalukyan "city of 101 temples and 101 wells".
80 m · 1 min walk
A compact Chalukya Shiva temple at Lakkundi, considered a stylistic forerunner to the grander Kasivisvesvara that stands close by — finely proportioned and richly moulded.
690 m · 9 min walk
A Chalukya Shiva temple at Lakkundi paired with the ornate Musukina Bhavi stepwell, one of the finely carved kalyanis for which the old capital is famed, with niched shrines around the water.

270 m · 3 min walk
An ASI gallery in Lakkundi displaying sculptures, hero-stones and inscriptions recovered from the town’s scores of Chalukya temples and stepwells — a useful key to the whole heritage cluster.
Roampedia is commission-free — own or know a stay, eatery, guide or shop near Kasivisvesvara Temple, Lakkundi? List it and it appears here once verified.
Add a nearby businessEntry: Free
At Lakkundi, ~11 km east of Gadag on the Koppal road; bus, auto or taxi
If you are travelling by bus or ferry, check the return service with the operator before setting out. Leave time to reach the stop or jetty after your visit.
Ask at the bus stand for the time of the last service back, not the next one. If you miss it, an auto or app cab is the fallback — agree the fare before you get in.
If you need step-free access, contact the site before travelling. Ask about a level entrance, steps along the route, the nearest drop-off point, seating and accessible toilets.
Emergency numbers are verified against official government and state tourism sources. 112 works anywhere in India.
A compact Chalukya Shiva temple at Lakkundi, considered a stylistic forerunner to the grander Kasivisvesvara that stands close by — finely proportioned and richly moulded.
80 m · 1 min walk · straight line
An ASI gallery in Lakkundi displaying sculptures, hero-stones and inscriptions recovered from the town’s scores of Chalukya temples and stepwells — a useful key to the whole heritage cluster.
270 m · 3 min walk · straight lineThe oldest and largest temple at Lakkundi, an early-11th-century Jain basadi dedicated to Mahavira and built by the poet-patron Attimabbe — a landmark of the Chalukyan "city of 101 temples and 101 wells".
380 m · 5 min walk · straight lineA Chalukya Shiva temple at Lakkundi paired with the ornate Musukina Bhavi stepwell, one of the finely carved kalyanis for which the old capital is famed, with niched shrines around the water.
690 m · 9 min walk · straight lineA Kalyani-Chalukya Shaiva complex in Gadag town enshrining a three-linga (trikuta) pedestal, famous for its adjoining Saraswati shrine with intricately lathe-turned stone pillars — a masterwork of 12th-century Deccan carving.
10.5 km · ~18 min by cab · straight lineAn early-12th-century Vishnu temple in Gadag town, linked to the Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana, where the 15th-century poet Kumaravyasa is said to have composed his Kannada Mahabharata (the Karnata Bharata Katha Manjari).
10.8 km · ~18 min by cab · straight lineA Western Chalukya Shiva temple at Dambal (c. 1124 CE) built on a rare 24-point stellate plan, its polygonal star-shaped vimana ringed by bands of carving and fronted by a large Nandi.
11.2 km · ~19 min by cab · straight line
A small state zoo and deer park at Binkadakatti on the edge of Gadag, opened in 1972 in a dry-scrub reserve — spotted deer, blackbuck, birds and a green picnic stop for families.
13.3 km · ~22 min by cab · straight line
A range of dry-deciduous hills spanning the Gadag, Mundargi and Shirahatti taluks — notified as a sanctuary in 2019, rich in medicinal herbs, wolves, hyenas and blackbuck, with the Nandiveri math at its foot.
25.1 km · ~42 min by cab · straight lineA wetland tank near Magadi in Shirahatti taluk that draws thousands of migratory bar-headed geese and 130-plus bird species each winter — a Conservation Reserve and a Ramsar site of international importance.
29.1 km · ~48 min by cab · straight lineAn 11th-century Chalukya Shiva temple in the walled compound of Lakshmeshwar (ancient Puligere), carrying scores of old Kannada inscriptions — a major centre of the Chalukyan temple country.
39.1 km · ~65 min by cab · straight line
The Sankha Jinalaya at Lakshmeshwar, an 8th-century Jain basadi to Neminatha (whose emblem is the conch, shankha), built under the Chalukya queen Kumkuma Mahadevi and holding a monolithic Sahasrakuta pillar of a thousand Tirthankaras.
39.7 km · ~66 min by cab · straight lineOctober to February; morning light on the east-facing carving.
Entry: Free. Timings: Daylight hours.
In Lakkundi, about 11 km east of Gadag on the Koppal road; reached by bus, auto or taxi. A protected ASI monument — remove footwear at the sanctum and do not touch the carvings.
45 minutes to an hour.
Nearby you can pair Nanneshwara Temple, Lakkundi (80 m), Lakkundi Archaeological Museum (270 m), Brahma Jinalaya, Lakkundi (380 m), Manikeshwara Temple, Lakkundi (690 m).
Photographs: P. Madhusudan, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0), Manjunath Doddamani Gajendragad at English Wikipedia (Public domain), Rkiran josh (CC BY-SA 3.0), Dineshkannambadi (CC BY-SA 3.0). Wikimedia Commons.