After a brief rest from a nagging shoulder pain (thanks to wrong posture and continuous use of computer), here I am back again to my blog. My post today is an interesting one and that which is pre-dominantly seen in parts of Karnataka, India. This is called the Hoysala Architecture.
For anybody travelling to Mysore from Bangalore or vice versa and have a flair for design, this place is highly recommended. This is a small, quiet town located approximately about 35 kilometres from Mysore and is called Somanathapura. This town boasts of an architectural marvel. It is the famous Chennakeshava temple in Hoysalan Architecture.
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| The view of the temple as you enter through the smoothly textured columns which form the highlight of this architecture. |
According to me, this town which is located on the banks of river cauvery goes unnoticed as it is hidden from the commercial areas. It is now a protected monument. This temple was built by Soma (also known as Somanatha) who was a commander under the king Narasimha III.
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| The temple is built using a soft grey stone with tints and shades of yellow on ít. It is also called as Soapstone and is a sculptor' delight |
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| The original deity of Chennakeshava is missing but one can see a similiar deity as you enter. The ceiling carved out in several layers highlights the work of the skilled sculptors |
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| Thís symmetric structure has a rectangular mantapa at the center and is surrounded by 3 star-shaped towers called vimana |
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| The finely finished stone pillars adds character and form to the temple. Also notice the stone lattice (Jaali) behind the pillars which is the only source of light into the temple. |
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| Most Hoysala temples are built on a platform called Jagati |
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| The outer wall consists of various sculptures of gods, goddesses and members of the royal family |
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| The Venugopala deity |
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| This temple houses 3 deities namely Janardhana, Venugopala and Chennakeshava |
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| The other carvings include processions of elephants, horsemen, warriors. The paisleys and the florals follow a rhythm. |
Hope you all enjoyed this and will surely plan for a week-end getaway to Somanathapura....
8 comments:
Truly an architecture lover's delight .... Love the intricate work and you have captured it too well... !!! The work done in our temples and palaces never fail to amaze me...
nothing beats our ancient temple architecture and palace constructions..thanks for sharing such lovely images
lovely.thanks for sharing this vasudha
Beautiful pictures! Beautiful blog!
Sonia
http://soniarevankar.wordpress.com
Vasudha...I am in awe...wish I had known about this place when I was in Blore. Your pics are truly stunning and delight!Thanks for sharing.
Beautiful!! Marvellous sculpting and great architecture. Be it Somnathpura, Halebid Belur, Hampi, Kajuraho, Puri Jagannath, Sun temple Konark - we outdid anybody anywhere in the world. This art form is still alive in India even today where it became a thing of the past in the rest of the world.
a very interesting post.....have lived in bangalore and mysore for several years but have never visited these temples.....wish i had done that....
Thank you for sharing this. The next time we're in Bangalore, I will take a trip and visit this! It looks so much like the Khmer temples at Angkor in Cambodia, which are very much influenced by Southern India temple architecture. We were recently in Cochin where they talked about finding Khmer relics there -- so the cultures definitely traveled and learned from each other.
Now I'm really curious to see this in person!
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