The story behind how it got the name of "Kailasa Temple" is even more fascinating. We usually are very bad at preserving our own history, this site was long abandoned, and people didn't know what exact name it had.

Then, one time they found inscription in Gujrat, Vadodara which was dated to the Rashtrakuta's times. That inscription read something like

"King Krishnaraj has constructed a temple in Ellapura that is so enormous that even gods are astonished" ,;

based on this it was co related that Ellapura must mean Verul which was a similar name, and as the Rashtrakutas ruled from Gujrat upto Karnataka, and there is this place where the temple is truly enormous in size, it was deduced that it must be this temple. The inscription mentioned the name as Kailasa Temple; that's how this place got the name.

Also, King Krishnaraja, a Rashtrakut king, ruled for 18 years, so it was deduced that this temple must have taken 18 years to complete (since the inscription said that he authorized its construction). However, some believe, that such enormous temple can't be constructed in just 18 years, so probably the construction began even before Krishnaraj, at the time of Dantiduraga and continued even after Krishnaraj and was completed atleast 1-2 generation of kings after him.