Bankapura

Bankapura was a fortified town in the Kannada-speaking country of the Deccan. Its Nagareshwara temple, within the fort, has carved grey-stone pillars and old Kannada inscriptions dating from around the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Its architecture reflects the Chalukya period, when many temples were built at Bankapura.

The town also had a place in Jain literary history: the Adipurana was composed there, and the Kannada poet Ranna visited to meet his teacher Ajithsenacharya. Bankapura later passed among several regional powers. An attack by the Bijapur sultan Ali Adil Shah I around 1565 damaged many temples; a mosque also stands within the fort. The surviving temple's pillars and ceiling preserve examples of its carved decoration despite damage to other parts of the building.