If someone with no prior knowledge of India and its geography were to be planted in Talakad, they would probably assume it is a desert, which in many ways it is. Talakad used to be an impressive town with more than thirty temples, in ancient times. A queen’s curse buried the temple town in sand. Even now, if one travels to Talakad by road, he/she can observe that up until Talakad and after it, the land is rich in red soil. It is only the Talakad belt that consists of sand. It is really quite a magical manifestation of sand, in a region that has no signs of an ocean or sea near it.

Sri Pathaleshwara Temple is considered to be one amongst the earliest temples constructed by the Ganga kings in this town. The prime attraction of this temple is its Shivalingam, which changes colour at different points during the day. The Shivalingam is red in colour during the morning, but changes to black in the afternoon and white at night.

The architecture of this temple is fairly simple, yet very elegant. It consists of many carvings of gods, goddesses, apsaras, animals and more. The temple is covered in sand. It is said that some of the shrines are still buried inside the sand. Once in twelve years, the sand is cleared, in order to make the temple more visible.

The temple’s gopura stands tall and has many intricate carvings on it. It looks absolutely stunning when the first rays of the morning sun reflect off of it. The temple sits on acres of sand. There is snd around the temple and above it. There have been special provisions made for people to access the temple, despite the presence of so much sand. The main temple stands atop a broad base. This base does not have intricate carvings. The design is fairly simple and basic. This allows the colour to pop and the focus is thus laid on the Gopura instead. The pillars in this temple are short and are a combination of cylindrical and square-like structures. The symmetry that this temple carries is simply amazing. In a time when, geographical conditions were such and math and technology weren’t as well developed, the temple stands tall as a testament to the brilliance of the workmanship.

This temple is completely worth a travel to Talakad. It is an cultural, geographical and architectural marvel.