Lad Khan Temple

The Lad Khan Temple, also called the Chalukya Shiva Temple, stands south of the Durga Temple among the monuments of Aihole in Karnataka. Scholars once put it in the 7th or 8th century but now date it to about the 5th, making it among the oldest Hindu temples and the oldest at Aihole. Its name comes from one Lad Khan, who lived in it for a short while.

The building imitates timber construction in stone, most clearly in the steep roof over the hall. A porch of 12 carved pillars leads into a hall whose pillars form two concentric squares, opened to the outside by large windows with northern-style lattice screens. The plan starts as a rectangle and ends as a square. On the roof sits a small second shrine with carved outer walls, a turret seen as an early forerunner of the later shikhara and vimana towers. First dedicated to Vishnu, the temple now holds a Shiva linga with Nandi.