File:11th Century Hindu Temple Stambha, Kasivisvesvara, Lakkundi, Karnataka.jpg
Location and history:
- The temple is located in the southern part of Lakkundi (close to Nanneshwara temple). It is about 12 kilometers southeast of Gadag-Betageri twin city, between Hampi and Goa. It can be reached by India's National Highway 67.
- Prior to the 14th-century, Lakkundi was a large, major historic city referred in pre-14th century texts and inscriptions as Lokkigundi – serving as a capital of the Hoysala dynasty. The city was destroyed in the Sultanate raids and wars that began in the 13th-century but rose from the ruins during the Vijayanagara Empire. The end of Vijayanagara Empire brought further social and political chaos to this region. Lakkundi was reduced to a galaxy of abandoned and mutilated ruins, spread over a cluster of small rural villages with a combined population of few thousand residents in the 19th-century.