Infosys Foundation chairperson Sudha Murty visited the Someshwara Temple at Lakshmishwara in Gadag district about a year ago. The dilapidated state of the Chalukya style temple belonging to the 11th century left her disappointed. She vowed to give a new lease of life to the historic temple that reflects the rich tradition and history of the state. She immediately wrote to the Department of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage about the pathetic state of the temple and expressed her interest to restore it. The directorate replied positively. Now, the temple is regaining its lost glory as the first phase of the restoration is being completed by Infosys Foundation.
Following the memorandum of understanding signed with the Department of Archaeology, Infosys Foundation began to restore the entire temple complex at a cost of `2 crore. This is the first monument in the state being taken up for renovation by Infosys Foundation.
According to the progress report of the works available with Express, a total of 9 ancillary structures of the temple was taken up in the first phase. The entire temple complex is being reconstructed as per the original plan and elevation is being carried out by utilising available original material and replacing missing stones with similar ones.
In the Ancillary Structure-1, there was heavy dimensional loss at the northern exterior wall, missing walls and ceiling members at many locations, missing roof profile along with parapet, parapet walls which do not belong to the original fabric, missing flooring stones, buried plinth and flooring at many locations, water seepage, heavy lime wash and soot deposits with cement pointing. Hence, the main works carried out in phase I were to remove vegetation from the structure and surrounding areas, systematic debris clearance to expose the hidden components, lowering ground, removal of earth to original level carefully without causing damage to the hidden portion of the structure, removal of weathered mud mortar carefully from roof-tops of the structures.
Infosys Foundation has numbered the architectural members in-situ and documentation. After the removal of the mud mortar from the roof-top, many architectural time zones in the construction have been noticed viz Rashtrakuta, later Chalukyan, Vijayanagara and post Vijayanagara. The clearance of mud in Grid-C exposed the Pranala of Chandramouleshwara shrine to its north just abutting plinth of grid-B.
As per the terms and conditions, Infosys Foundation has sent the progress report of the restoration works to the Department of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage.
