Dodda Basappa Temple

Doddabasappa Temple (Kannada: ದೊಡ್ಡಬಸಪ್ಪ ದೇವಸ್ಥಾನ) is a 12th-century Western Chalukyan architectural innovation in Dambal, Karnataka state, India. Dambal is about 20 km (12 mi) southeast of Gadag city and 24 km (15 mi) southwest of Ittagi in Koppal district. The sanctum contains a Shiva linga, the symbol of the presiding deity, God Shiva. The temple interior is a standard construction and consists of a sanctum (cella), a vestibule (antarala) and a main mantapa (also called navaranga or hall). The vestibule connects the sanctum to the mantapa. The Western Chalukya monuments, regional variants of existing dravida (South Indian) temples, defined the Karnata dravida architectural tradition.

The temple is based on a very original 24-pointed uninterrupted (star shaped) plan and uses soapstone as its basic building material. Contemporary stellate plans of the Bhumija shrines in central India from where the inspiration for this temple came from, were all 32-pointed interrupted types. No temples of the 6-, 12-, or 24-pointed stellate plans are known to exist in Karnataka or Maharashtra, with the exception of the Doddabasappa temple, which can be described as a 24-pointed uninterrupted plan. In an 'interrupted' stellate plan, the stellate outline is interrupted by orthogonal (right-angle) projections in the cardinal directions, resulting in star points that have been skipped.

The Doddabasappa temple marks the mature development of the Chalukyan art which originated from basic dravida architecture of South India. Its departure from conventional dravida plan used in the Virupaksha temple in Pattadakal is so extreme that it would be very difficult to find similarities without detailed examination. A star shape is obtained by rotating a square about its centre. The star points form equidistant projections. The angles and re-entrant angles thus formed make the perimeter of the outerwall of the shrine.

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