Talakadu is a town on the left bank of the Kaveri river 45 km (28 miles) from Mysore and 133 km (82 miles) from Bangalore in Karnataka, India. Latinizations of the towns name vary, but include Talkād, Talakadu, Talakkadu, or Thalakadu. It had over 30 temples, most of which now lay buried in sand. The extant group of temples, where the eastward flowing Kaveri river changes course as the sand on its banks spreads over a wide area, is a popular site for Hindus.
The origin of the town is lost in antiquity, but one tradition is that its name was derived from two Kirāta twin brothers, Tala and Kādu. The brothers cut down a tree after seeing wild elephants worship it and discovered it contained an image of Shiva and that the elephants were rishis transformed. The tree being miraculously restored, all obtained mōksha and the place was named Tala-kādu, which was translated into Sanskrit as Dala-vana. Two stone images declared to represent the brothers are pointed out in front of the temple Veerabadra swamy. In a later age, Rāma is said to have halted here on his expedition to Lanka.
The earliest authentic mention of the city of Talekād or Talakādu, in Sanskrit Dalavana-pura, is in connection with the Ganga line of kings. Harivarma, who has been assigned to find a place (247–266 CE) was, according to an old chronicle, installed at Skandapura (said to be Gajalhatti, in the Coimbatore country, near where the Moyār flows into the Bhavāni), but resided in the great city of Dalavanapura in the Karnāta-dēsa. After Talkād became the capital these powerful sovereigns and there the subsequent kings of that line were crowned.
At the beginning of the eleventh century CE, the Western Gangas succumbed to the Chōlas, who captured Talkād and gave it the name of Rājarājapura. But about a century later the Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana, who drove the Chōlas out of Mysore, took it. After this time, Talkād was composed of seven towns and five mathas. The town of Māyilangi or Malingi, on the opposite side of the river, was also a large place and had the name of Jananāthapura.