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Kailasa (Kaliash) temple lacks a&nbsp;dedicatory inscription, but there is no doubt that it was commissioned by a&nbsp;Rashtrakuta&nbsp;ruler.&nbsp;Its construction is generally attributed to the Rashtrakuta king&nbsp;Krishna I&nbsp;(r. 756-773 CE), based on two epigraphs that link the temple to &quot;Krishnaraja&quot; (IAST&nbsp;Kṛṣṇarāja):

<ul>
	<li>The&nbsp;Vadodara&nbsp;copper-plate inscription (c. 812-813 CE) of Karkaraja II (a ruler of a&nbsp;Rashtrakuta branch&nbsp;of&nbsp;Gujarat) records the grant of a&nbsp;village&nbsp;in present-day Gujarat. It mentions Krishnaraja as the patron of Kailasanatha, and also mentions a&nbsp;Shiva&nbsp;temple at Elapura (Ellora). It states that the king constructed a temple so wondrous that even the&nbsp;gods&nbsp;and the architect were astonished.[8]&nbsp;Most scholars believe that this is a reference to the Kailasanatha Shiva temple at Ellora.</li>
	<li>The&nbsp;Kadaba&nbsp;grant of Govinda Prabhutavarsha similarly appears to credit Krishnaraja with the construction of the temple.</li>
</ul>

However, the attribution of the temple to Krishna I is not completely certain because these epigraphs are not physically connected to the caves, and do not date Krishnaraja&#39;s reign.[8]&nbsp;Moreover, the land grants issued by Krishna&#39;s successors do not contain any references to the Kailasa temple .

The Kailasa temple features the use of multiple distinct architectural and sculptural styles. This, combined with its relatively large size, has led some scholars to believe that its construction spanned the reigns of multiple kings.&nbsp;Some of the temple&nbsp;reliefs&nbsp;feature the same style as the one used in the&nbsp;Dashavatara cave&nbsp;(Cave 15), which is located next to the temple. The Dashavatara cave contains an inscription of Krishna&#39;s predecessor and nephew&nbsp;Dantidurga&nbsp;(c.&thinsp;735&ndash;756 CE).[12]&nbsp;Based on this,&nbsp;art historian&nbsp;Hermann Goetz&nbsp;(1952) theorized that the construction of the Kailasa temple began during the reign of Dantidurga. Krishna consecrated its first complete version, which was much smaller than the present-day temple.[&nbsp;According to Goetz, Dantidurga&#39;s role in the temple construction must have been deliberately suppressed, as Krishna sidelined Dantidurga&#39;s sons to claim the throne after his death.&nbsp;Based on analysis of the different styles, Goetz further hypothesized that the later Rashtrakuta rulers also extended the temple. These rulers include&nbsp;Dhruva Dharavarsha,&nbsp;Govinda III,&nbsp;Amoghavarsha, and&nbsp;Krishna III. According to Goetz, the 11th century&nbsp;Paramara&nbsp;ruler&nbsp;Bhoja&nbsp;commissioned the elephant-lion&nbsp;frieze&nbsp;on the lower&nbsp;plinth&nbsp;during his invasion of Deccan, and added a new layer of paintings. Finally,&nbsp;Ahilyabai Holkar&nbsp;commissioned the last layer of paintings in the temple.

M. K. Dhavalikar&nbsp;(1982) analyzed the architecture of the temple, and concluded that the major part of the temple was completed during the reign of Krishna I, although he agreed with Goetz that some other parts of the temple complex can be dated to the later rulers. According to Dhavalikar, the following components were completed by Krishna: the main shrine, its gateway, the&nbsp;nandi-mandapa, the lower-storey, the elephant-lion frieze, the court elephants and the victory pillars.&nbsp;Dhavalikar admits that the most important sculpture of the temple, which depicts&nbsp;Ravana shaking the Kailasa mountain, appears to have been built after the main edifice. This sculpture is considered one of the finest pieces of Indian art, and it is possible that the temple came to be known as Kailasa after it. Dhavalikar theorizes that this sculpture was carved around 3-4 decades after the completion of the main shrine, on the basis of its similarity to the&nbsp;tandava&nbsp;sculpture in the Lankeshvar cave.[&nbsp;H. Goetz dated this relief to the reign of&nbsp;Krishna III.&nbsp;Like Goetz, Dhavalikar attributes some other structures in the temple complex to the later rulers. These include the Lankeshvar cave and the shrine of the river goddesses (possibly constructed during the reign of&nbsp;Govinda III).&nbsp;Dhavalikar further theorizes that the excavation of the Dashavatara cave, which began during the reign of Dantidurga, was completed during the reign of Krishna I. This explains the similarities between the sculptures in the two caves.

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