Hoysaleśvara [Hoysaleswara] temple at Halebid

The highest achievement of the Chalukya-Hoysala school of architecture is the Hoysaleśvara temple at Halebid. Unfortunately it is also a truncated structure. It is the supreme climax of Indian architecture in its most prodigal plastic manifestation It illustrates a phenomenal concentration, superb technical skill, ingenuity, imagination and profound religious consciousness of both the Kāraka, the donor and the Kartā, the architect, Sthapati. Percy Brown views it as a monument having no peer in regard to these above mentioned characteristics. Even despite of the truncated superstructure this temples in the opinion of Brown, chiefly on account of the emphatic prodigality of its sculptural embellishment, is without exaggeration, one of the most remarkable monuments ever produced by the hand of man. It was the principal temple within the walls of ancient city of Darasamudra, which for three centuries flourishing as the royal capital of the Hoysal empire. It is now relegated into a hamlet called Halebid some 50 miles north-west of Mysore “of the temporal power of this one-time great capital city of its palaces and citadels fortification and civic buildings, there remain now only grass-grown mounds. Yet of the spiritual life of its people this fine temple is still a standing monument when all that was material has faded into oblion [oblivion?]. Hoysaleśvara [Hoysaleswara] was designed and erected as an inscription states by one Kedaroja the mister builder of Narasinha [Narasiṃha] (1141-82) the Hoysal king under the supervision of Ketamalla chief officer of Public Works”.

On the entrances too the sculpture is very beautiful. The statues of Dvarapalas in tribhaṅga or three-flexed attitude and latā toraṇa or archway supported by Yali (those water-unicorns shaped like huge pachydermatous quadrupeds, spouting foliage on either side) and the central figure of Tāṇḍaveśvara wildly dancing, are more remarkable. The mandākinī bracket over the capitals of the pillars are as usual and are in the line with the order of this style of later Chalukyan architecture.

N.B.—This is one phase of the later Chalukyan or Hoysala style, there is yet another phase which for its consummation had its origin and evolution in the earlier mode. Paucity of space forbids me to review this phase in detail, nevertheless a bare mention of the temples may serve the purpose. There are about fifty temples built in this phase located in the northern boarder of Mysore state astride the upper beaches of the Tuṅgabhadrā river.

The earlier buildings are located at Kukkanur like Navalinga shrine and Kāleśvara. Not very far off this place, a Jain temple was built at Lakkunadi. Mukteśvara at Chaudadampur, a hamlet on the banks of the Tuṅgabhadrā river towards the eastern boundary of the Dharwar district may be illustrated as representing a fuller consummation of this style. This consummation, again is exemplified in several other temples of which the three finest are the Kāśīviśveśvara at Lakunadi the Mahādeva at Ittagi and the Mallikārjuna at Kuruvatti.