The northern part of Karnataka is
one of the richest areas of lndia in monuments of great artistic
value. It was subjected to the rule of several royal families,
CāLukyas of Kalyāṇa, Kaḷacūris and Senas in the tenth to thirteenth
centuries CE which has been a period of great cultural refinement. It
was the time of the greatest expansion of the Kālāmukha-Lakulaśaiva
movements, and of the rise of Vīraśaivism.
The temple of Mukteśvara at
Cauḍadānapura (Dharwar district) is a beautiful representative of the
style and the high culture of that time. Its history is known to us,
thanks to a set of seven long inscriptions, composed in literary
medieval Kannada, engraved with great care on large steles. It is a
single cella temple in what is popularly known as Jakkaṇācārī style.
The present study contains a historical introduction, the complete
edition, translation and interpretation of the inscriptions, an
architectural description, with a graphic survey and an iconographical
analysis.
