English: The Naganatha temple is a ruined Jain temple in Lakkundi, about 1000 feet to the northeast of the Brahma Jinalaya. It was either originally dedicated to Tirthankara Parsvanatha or Naga deity, both being popular in South Indian Jaina tradition. Like all Jain and Hindu temples of Lakkundi area, this temple was damaged and abandoned after the 13th-century based on the inscriptions found in Lakkundi area. The abandoned temple was appropriated by the local Hindu community in the 19th century, without changes to the Jaina motifs or original artwork, after they placed a crudely formed Shiva linga block on top of the pedestal in the sanctum. It is an inactive temple.

Location, history, features:

• The temple is located in the western part of Lakkundi, now a small town. Lakkundi is about 12 kilometers southeast of Gadag-Betageri twin city, between Hampi and Goa. It can be reached by India's National Highway 67.
• Prior to the 14th-century, Lakkundi was a large, major historic city referred in pre-14th century texts and inscriptions as Lokkigundi – serving as a capital of the Hoysala dynasty. The city was destroyed in the Sultanate raids and wars that began in the 13th-century but rose from the ruins during the Vijayanagara Empire. The end of Vijayanagara Empire brought further social and political chaos to this region. Lakkundi was reduced to a galaxy of abandoned and mutilated ruins, spread over a cluster of small rural villages with a combined population of few thousand residents in the 19th-century.
• This ruined temple was among the dozens in this Lakkundi area that were rediscovered in the 19th-century by British archaeologists and scholars such as Henry Cousens.
• The motifs found on temple's outer wall, the mandapa and gavaskas (near the roof) are predominantly Jaina Tirthankaras and deities. Like the Brahma Jinalaya, this temple also includes Hindu motifs such as the Gajalakshmi. However, they are far fewer in this temple than the bigger Brahma Jinalaya temple.
• The relatively smaller temple has a pillared porch, a mukhya mandapa with four pillars, and a garbhagriya (sanctum).
• The lalita-bimba of the sanctum depicts Parsvanatha, yet the pedestal inside the sanctum lacks the characteristic Parsvanatha iconography.
• The temple likely had a sikhara (spire), but that has been lost to history.
• Like other damaged temples in Lakkundi area, some broken parts of the temple have been put back and restored with new plaster in the modern era. According to the Archaeological Survey of India officials, some of such restoration was necessary in this and other Lakkundi area temples to prevent a collapse of the temple with visitors inside.
• This is an ASI protected and managed monument: N-KA-D249.