Temples in Mysore State

Out of over a hundred temples enumerated in Mysore state more than eighty are in Chalukya-Hoysals mode.

Their architectural composition has been examined by writers like Percy Brown under the following four headings:—

1. The configuration of the building and the shape of the plan.
2. The treatment of the wall surfaces.
3. The formation of the tower, or Śikhara; and
4. The design of the pillars or the order.

1. “The central structure, or main building, in its simplest form resolves itself into the customary three compartments, namely, the cella, or garbha-griha attached to a vestibule known as the sukhanasi, which connects with a pillared hall or navaranga; in front of the last is very often an open pillared pavilion or mukha mandapa. It is however in its actual conformation that the Hoysala temple is distinct from all others In the first place many of these structures, instead of consisting of a single cella with its pillared hall, are multiples of this system, in numerous instances, they are double temples having most of their essential parts in duplicate, and quite frequently they are triple, quadruple and in some instances quintuple in their plan and general arrangements”—Brown.

Another characteristic of the Chalukyan temple is the stellate or Aṣṭabhadra plan which is obtained by means of an intricate geometrical proposition which consists of a combination of equal squares each with a common centre but whose diagnols [diagonals?] vary by several degrees; the amount of difference in degrees being in accordance with the number of points required to form the star. The typical Hoysala temple-structure is both Nirandhāra-Prāsādas and Jagatī-Prāsādas as it stands on a high platform which is much wider and more spacious, than appears necessary, thus leaving a broad flat surface or terrace all round the temple. It had a definite purpose. For, in none of these temples is there an interior Pradakṣiṇāpatha. and this space provides a suitable substitute for processions or circumambulations.

2. The general effect of the wall surfaces is one of horizontality [horizontally?] as most of the temples lack their towers and superstructure and consequently, these, as previously made in regard to the earlier examples, are more sabhā maṇḍapas than hall-temples. These are the Jagatī-Prāsādas of the Samarāṅgaṇa. This Jagatī terrace is a high and vertical basement in some instances nine or ten feet in height, not formed of mouldings but made up into a number of bands containing animated sculptured designs and running right round the building. Percy Brown is very apt in his description—vide Indian Architecture, p. 168 4th para. The three horizontal divisions of the Vimāna wall are more ornate than the two comprising pillared hall and coupled with the śtellate plan of the structure where architecture simply turns into plastic art of sculpture as in this wide wall surface the Hoysala craftman placed within ornate niches and under foliated canopies the images of his gods, so elaborately chiselled that they scarcely be regarded as part of the architecture, because each appears as a distinct and independent example of plastic art.

3. The third element of the Hoysal temple is the design and the treatment of the tower or śikhara which is keynote of the style. Here also the stellate system is carried through to produce a fluted effect. The motifs that make up the horizontal and vertical pattern of śikhara consist of a complex grouping of miniature shrines and niches, each tier being separated either by a sunk moulding or a fretted stringcourse. In mass this type of tower has no effective height and its contours, being a section of a parabola are not strong outline. There is a certain plastic beauty in its rich sculptured texture, but architecturally it is formless, and lacks structural strength.

4. The fourth and the last element refers to the particular shape of the pillar and its capital in a word the ‘order’. It is distinguished by a ‘four-square’ bracket above. The pillar shaft is monolithic as usual characterised by square pedestal and bell-shaped member towards the lower half of the shaft. Further the strut-like brackets were carved of one state into images enshrined within leafy aureoles and are known as Mandākinī figures. So elaborately are they sculptured as to reveal in execution and high finish those in the niches on the vimāna walls.

To put in the nutshell the whole composition is more than an architecture. The mode is not that of a builder, but that of art-craftsman such as the sandal-wood carver, the ivory-worker, the metalcaster and also of the gold-smith. What he produced was in reality not architecture, but applied art. In viewing this art some designate it ‘architect’s architecture’ or ‘artist’s architecture’ which really is ‘sculptor’s architecture’. The Mysore temples owe their character more to the sculptor than to the mason. Further running through the entire composition of the temple, are the long bands of the narrative art, illustrating with the utmost detail and in a singularly dramatic fashion, extracts from the nation’s mythology and folklore with which even the humbliest [humblest?] would be familiar. Percy Brown therefore, rightly remarks that under these conditions it is not surprising that the temple-builder became a story teller in stone, so that his productions appertain more to an illumined missal transmuted into sculpture, than to a full scale architectural composition.

Examples:—

The larger and more important are incomplete, hence they can not represent the temple in its full expression. Hence we have to look to smaller buildings.

Among these the followings are more mention-worthy.—

1. The Lakṣmīdevī (quadruple) at Dodda-guddavali A.D. 1113.
2. The Keśava (triple) at Nagamangala A. D. 1117.
3. The Buchesvara (triple) at Coramangala 1173.
4. The Īśvara (double) at Arshikeri 1220.
5. The Harihara temple (double) at Harihara 1224.
6. The Keśava (triple) at Honnahalli 1234.
7. The Lakṣmī-Narasimha (triple) at Nuggihalli 1249.
8. The Keśava (triple) at Somanathapura 1268.

Most typical and complete is the Keśava temple of Somanathapur. It is a triple shrine called trikūṭācala. The Samarāṅgaṇā-sūtradhara as we have seen describes in one of its chapters the ‘Saḍtriṃśati-Nāgara Prāsādas, and it appears these temples illustrate this Vāstuśāstra variety of Nāgara or North Indian style of temple-architecture. It illustrates the Chalukyan style in its late maturity. Owing to its triple combination, the plan of the temple forms the shape of a cross and the towers being in the stellate design. The whole structure stands on a raised Jagatī and its plan is fairly simple as it consists of a main pillared hall in the centre at the western end of which are the three shrines, one in axial alignment with the hall, the others projecting literally, like transcepts, thus producing its cruciform effect.