Famous Temples in India

Architecture

Sri Chennakeshava Temple was facing in East direction and constructed in Hoysala style of architecture. The garbhagriha is star shaped, the garbha-griha doorway has dvarapalas on either side and Lakshmi-Narayana on its lintel. The tower of the temple is a four storey (tala) elevation. The tower starts with a topping roof which is also 16-star pointed and is followed by four tiers of square roofs, some of which still have their decorative kalasa.

Mandapams & Pillars - It consists of a garbhagriha (sanctum), sukanasi (vestibule) and a navaranga (closed hall). An entrance porch is attached to the navaranga. Major Hindu deities are represented upon the pillars and lintels of the temple. The navaranga hall is a square with its central ceiling supported on four lathe-turned pillars. The four lathe-cum-pillars with cubical bases, supports the navaranga's ceiling. The entrance to the raised platform is flanked with two mini pavilions, on either side, at its lower level. Similar pavilions would have been placed on the upper level however those have not survived, this divides the hall into nine equal compartments. On its eastern side, the hall is extended to accommodate a porch. All the nine ceilings of this hall are executed in different styles. The projection over the sukanasi has lost its Hoysala emblem.

Temple Walls  - The temple walls are decorated with carved depictions of scenes from the great epics of the Ramayana and Bhagavata. The style found on the porch wall has five bands in total starting from below we find caparisoned elephants with riders moving forth to a battle miniature temples horsemen with swords and lances along with camels here and there breaking the monotony, a long creeper scroll mythological scenes from Ramayana and Bhagavata Purana and miniatures temples with a seated Yaksha. The upper most band of the previous style, is replaced with two bands makaras and swans in this arrangement. Above this arrangement of bands runs a frieze of large size statues. The mythological friezes narrate stories of Ramayana and Bhagavad Gita. The lowest friezes depict wars fought by the Hoysalas to build their empire. Below the panels are images of various deities. A staggering number of these images are of Vishnu in his various avatars.