Best of My Travel

Keywords: Hoysala Temples, Hoysaleshwara Temple, Halebidu Halebidu is about 30 min from Belur and about 210 kms from Bangalore. Location:  Hoysaleswara Temple, Halebidu Hoysaleswara temple is a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. It was built in Halebidu during the rule of King Vishnuvardhana of the Hoysala Empire in the 12th century. The construction was started around 1120 CE and completed in 1150 CE.  (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoysaleswara_Temple). Interesting Facts about Hoysaleshwara Temple Temple Entrance The temple is a simple dvikuta vimana (plan with two shrines and two superstructures), one for "Hoysaleswara" (the king) and the other for "Shantaleswara" (named after Shantala Devi, queen of King Vishnuvardhana) and is built with chloritic chist (more commonly known as Soapstone or potstone). The temple complex as a whole is elevated on a jagati (platform). Sanctum The two mantapas are connected ...

Keywords: Hoysala Temples, Chennakeshava Temple, Belur After a lot of research on current day surviving hoysala temples, I decided to visit as many temples as possible which I could at least locate on google maps and get some information. Thanks to internet, I could locate as many as 60 temples. The temples are spread all across present day Karnataka but majority of them are located in Mysore-Hassan-Tumkur belt. I covered about 10 temples in the first trip. I was accompanied by my close friend Sandarsh on this first ever trip. We left Bangalore around 6:00 A.M. We had breakfast at Adyar Anand Bhavan at Chennarayapatna and then headed to Belur. The roads were pretty good and hence we reached Belur at around 9:30. Belur temple is best to visit early in the morning. Temple opens at 9:00 A. M. Lot of visitors come here everyday and thus makes life difficult for photographers. Hence reaching there as early is the best option. Hoysala Temples in Karnataka Chennakeshava Temple, B...

About Hoysala Dynasty The Hoysala empire was a prominent Southern Indian Kannadiga empire that ruled most of the modern-day state of Karnataka between the 10th and the 14th centuries. The capital of the Hoysalas was initially located at Belur but was later moved to Halebidu. The Hoysala rulers were originally from Malnad Karnataka, an elevated region in the Western Ghats range. In the 12th century, taking advantage of the internecine warfare between the then ruling Western Chalukya and Kalachuri kingdoms, they annexed areas of present-day Karnataka and the fertile areas north of the Kaveri River delta in present-day Tamil Nadu. By the 13th century, they governed most of present-day Karnataka, minor parts of Tamil Nadu and parts of western Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in Deccan India. Hoysala Timeline Hoysala Origin Kannada folklore tells a tale of a young man Sala, who saved his Jain guru Sudatta by striking dead a Tiger he encountered near the temple of the Goddess Va...