Famous Temples in India

Architecture

Hoysaleshwara Temple derived name from the King Vishnuvardhana Hoysaleswara, who built the temple. This temple is facing in East direction and constructed in Hoysala style of architecture. There is a Kannada inscription on the beautifully sculpted south door and the temple built with Soapstone.

Garbha Gudi : The main shrine was built on a star-shaped base. There are four entrances one on the North, one on the South and two from the East. If one enters from the Northern Door, one can find beautiful carvings of Dwarapalakas of Lord Shiva, at the entrance of the door richly decorated with ornaments and weapons. On the top of the entrance one can find carvings of Makara which is a mystical animal composed of Peacock, Elephant, Lion, Pig and Crocodile. The tower over the temple shrine (vimana) is delicately finished with intricate carvings.

Dhwaja Stambham : The most interesting part of the temple is the Garuda Sthamba, which is a rare pillar that depicts the history of the bodyguards that lived with the Kings in olden days. These bodyguards committed suicide on the death of their master and this pillar pays homage to a bodyguard named Kuruva Lakshma who killed himself after the death of his master. The event is narrated in detail on the pillar.

Mandapams & Pillars : Astadik Palakas on the Navaranga roof, the long passage covered with various kinds of pillars and perforated screen onto the right. This is the only place where there is passage between two kuta, normally they are closed in most of the other temples. The Mandakini's present in the Navaranga Mantapas. Making the forefront of the each shrine, the four pillars are the most elaborate having 'Madanika' sculptures in their brackets. The massive temple has four porches serving as its doorways. The super structure on the shrines is known as 'Sunakasi', which used to be a row of ornamented miniature roofs on top of the attics of the hall are all gone astray. Even the towers of the shrines are not there. The temple was constructed at a height to grant adequate horizontal and vertical space to illustrate large and small sculptures.

Temple Walls : It has about thousand figures on the walls which depict scenes of Mahabharata and Ramayana. There are six railings before the wall images are present. The first railing has Elephants present surrounding the entire temple, the second railing consists of Mystic Lion which is exhibited in many postures. The third railing consists of Cavalry forces with men and horses dressed in war attire, the fourth railing consists of Makara which is a mystical animal as explained earlier and the sixth railing consists of Swans which hold set of beads in their beaks. Above the sixth railing the seventh railing consists of Wall images of all Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Upon reaching the Northern Entrance, the decoration changes from Wall images to small images of Courtesans, musicians, drummers etc., and great amount of detailing can be found here too.