Doddabasappa Temple

The Doddabasappa Temple at Dambal, about 20 kilometres south-east of Gadag, is a 12th-century Western Chalukyan temple to Shiva, whose linga stands in the sanctum. Inside, the arrangement is standard: a sanctum, a vestibule and a main hall, or navaranga. The outside is what makes it unusual.

The shrine is built of soapstone on an unbroken 24-pointed star plan, made by turning a square about its centre so that the points project at equal intervals. The Bhumija shrines of central India that inspired it used 32-pointed plans interrupted at the cardinal directions, and no other temple with a 6-, 12- or 24-pointed star plan is known in Karnataka or Maharashtra. The points carry on up the tower over the shrine, giving it an exotic outline, and the design strays so far from the usual dravida plan, such as that of the Virupaksha temple at Pattadakal, that the link is hard to see without careful study.