Saumyakeshava Temple, Nagamangala

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Hoysala Heritage Trip - 5

Another weekend, all alone at home and another opportunity to explore the great living Hoysala temples. I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and started off at 5:15. It had rained heavily he previous night, hence it was very gloomy in the morning. I reached Swathi Hotel around 7:00 where I had breakfast. Then headed to the historic city of Nagamangala.

Keywords: Hoysala Temples, Saumyakeshava Temple, Nagamangala

Saumyakeshava Temple, Nagamangala

Nagamangala is a town in the Mandya district of Karnataka state, India. It is located 62 km from the historically important town Mysore, on the Srirangapatna-Sira highway.

Location; Nagamangala

The Saumyakeshava temple (also spelt Sauymakesava or Soumyakeshava) at Nagamangala was constructed in the 12th century by the rulers of the Hoysala empire. Historically, Nagamangala came into prominence during the rule of Hoysala King Vishnuvardhana when it became an important center of Vaishnava faith and received patronage from one of his queens, Bommaladevi. During the rule of Veera Ballala II, Nagamangala prospered as an agrahara (place of Hindu religious studies) and had the honorific Vira Ballala Chaturvedi Bhattaratnakara. The temple is protected as a monument of national importance by the Archaeological Survey of India.

The temple is a large structure and has received patronage by multiple dynasties and reveals features of the later day Vijayanagara empire whose rulers added the entrance and tower over it (mahadvara) and bounding walls (prakara). Some post-Vijayanagara features are also visible. The tower over the entrance (gopuram) is a 7-story tall lime and brick structure that is adorned by Hindu gods, goddesses and other decorative structures in stucco.









The main deity of the temple is Saumyakeshava (form of Lord Vishnu). The temple is a trikuta (3 shrine), the other 2 deity's are Lakshminarasimha and Venugopala. Photography is prohibited inside the main temple.


I waited till the main puja was over and after having prasadam I headed to Basaralu.









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