Sudi Jodu Kalasa: The Twin-Towered Temple – Karnataka

Address

Sudi Jodu Kalasa: The Twin-Towered Temple – Karnataka

Karnataka 582211

Moolavar

Shiva

Introduction

Sudi is a panchayat town in the Gadag District of Karnataka, India. It is about 12 km from Gajendragad 30 kms from the important Chalukyan centre of Badami at Karnataka is a sleepy town of Sudi. It is the home of the Jodu Kalasa temple. This Shaivite temple has twin shrines sharing a common Nandi mandapa and has identical shikharas (spires). An unusual structure among the temples of India, it has earned the moniker ‘Jodu Kalasa’ or the temple of ‘twin Kalashas.’ – Sudi was a very important seat of the Western Chalukyan dynasty, who ruled large parts of western India between 10th and 12th centuries CE.

Adam Hardy, temple architecture expert in his seminal book ‘Indian temple architecture’ calls the ‘Sudi style’ of Chalukyan architecture, which continued to use sandstone, while other regions of Karnataka used the easier-to-carve soapstone.

The temple contains two garbhagrihas (sanctum sanctorum) sharing a common Nandi mandap. While the western sanctum houses a Shivalinga, the eastern one is empty. It remains a matter of debate amongst experts whether the temple was left incomplete or the deity in the eastern garbhagriha was stolen over time.