The style adopted in the region that today lies in the modern states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh (Deccan) which served in its geographical position as buffer between north and south, that architectural style has mix of both the Nagara and Dravidian temple styles.^[63] While some scholars consider the buildings in this region as being distinctly either nagara or dravida, a hybridised style that seems to have become popular after the mid-seventh century, is known in some ancient texts as vesara. In the southern part of the Deccan, i.e., in the region of Karnataka is where some of the most experimental hybrid styles of vesara architecture are to be found

Historians agree that the vesara style originated in what is today Karnataka. According to some, the style was started by the Chalukyas of Badami (500-753AD) whose Early Chalukya or Badami Chalukya architecture built temples in a style that mixed some features of the nagara and the dravida styles, for example using both the northern shikhara and southern vimana type of superstructure over the sanctum in different temples of similar date, as at Pattadakal. However, Adam Hardy and others regard this style as essentially a form of Dravida. This style was further refined by the Rashtrakutas of Manyakheta (750-983AD) in sites such as Ellora.

Though there is clearly a good deal of continuity with the Badami or Early Chalukya style,^[65] other writers only date the start of Vesara to the later Western Chalukyas of Kalyani (983–1195 AD),^[66] in sites such as Lakkundi, Dambal, Itagi, and Gadag,^[67] and continued by the Hoysala empire (1000–1330 AD).

The Hoysala temples at Belur, Halebidu and Somnathpura are leading examples of the Vesara style.^[68] These temples are now proposed as a UNESCO world heritage site