Famous Temples in India

Architecture

The Pranavesvara Temple is a small square austere building with a garbhagriha and a sukanasi. The garbhagriha houses a large Sivalinga on a Bhadra pitha. The epigraphical evidence says that the Shivalinga in the garbhagriha was worshipped from the rule of Satakarni rulers. The Inscribed Pillar is about 40 feet from the temple's front door containing inscriptions in Sanskrit. A Sanskrit inscription in box headed characters with an invocation to god Pasupati engraved on the right door jamb of the Pranavesvara Temple, registers a grant of money for feeding thirty residents of Sthanakunjapura by Kakustha of the Bhatari family who was a feudatory of the Kadamba king. Talagunda was an ancient agrahara town called as Sthana Kundura in Kadamba inscriptions, the original home of the Kadambas of Banavasi, the first indigenous kingdom in Karnataka. Sporadic explorations around Talagunda has brought to light Early Historic vestiges in the form of brick structures. An inscription in Prakrit of the Satavahana period found at Malavalli, 7 KM North-East of Talagunda, proves that the place was under the occupation of the Satavahanas right from 1st-2nd century A.D. The holy primeval god Bhava, found here, was said to have been worshipped by the Satakarnis in an inscription.