Some times you end up at places which are truly remarkable in their grandeur and nature of history they have. Belur and Halebidu temples from Hoysala dynasty in Karnataka are two such places in my journey of being a local guide till now. My first impression to these places were “everyone should come and see these places”.
The Temple in Belur is called “Channakeshva” meaning Beautiful Vishnu(Vishnu is one of main God in Hindu Religion). This Temple is built by three different Hoysala kings during their rains of
103 years. The temple is famous for its internal architecture which has more than 40 pillars each designed its own way.
One of the pillar has complete miniature of the temple with one box empty , its is said that artist left it blank because art work can never be completed and left blank for the next generation to fill it.
The inner sanctum of the temple has an active temple where people can do pooja. The outer dome has some of the famous structures such as “shiva inside elephant” , “dancer with the mirror” and many more.
Depiction of all the various avatars of lord vishnu has been the main themes as this is a vishnu temple.
Halebidu, temple is devoted to lord Shiva and has beautiful outer architecture. It is visible that temple is incomplete from inside due to several attacks that took place during the time.
The architecture here also is quite similar to that of Belur temple. But some of the stone carvings are better preserved here.
I found these places hidden because many people out to Karnataka are not aware about these temples. these are hidden treasures and very well preserved part of history. A history which 1000 years old.
There are no tickets to these places. The nearest city is Hassan and its only 5 hours drive from Indian IT Hub of Bengaluru.
There are similar stories from my Madhya Pradesh trip last year, But that is for some other time. I am leaving you with this image for you to find out.
Till next time.
#setpanchifree