Nageshvara Temple, Begur

The Nageshvara temple complex, known locally as Naganatheshvara, stands in Begur, a small town in Bengaluru Urban district. Two of its shrines were built under the Western Ganga kings Nitimarga I (r. 843–870) and Nitimarga II (r. 907–921), and the others are credited to the later Chola, Hoysala and Vijayanagara periods. Local belief holds that Ravana worshipped Nageshvara here on his way back to Lanka.

The epigraphist R. Narasimhachar found an Old Kannada inscription here, dated around 890, that mentions a battle at Bengaluru, the earliest known record of the city's name. The main shrine has a square sanctum, a vestibule and a large closed hall opening onto an open hall reached by balustraded steps. Six plain white granite pillars, square at the base and fluted and octagonal in the middle, frame a Nandi seated on a lotus platform.