PHOTOS

Halebid
About Halebid City
The great city of Dwarasamudra flourished as a Capital of the Hoysala Empire during the 12th & 13th centuries. During the reign of Veeraballala II, the grandson of Vishnuvardhana, it reached the greatness of its zenith. Veeraballala II extended his empire from sea to sea between the Cauvery & Krishna rivers.
On account of certain reasons this came to decadence stage. The renovation work was undertaken by the State Government about 30 years ago & the town as well as its area gradually improved. The climate is pleasant. There are buses running from Hassan, Arasikere & Belur. There is a big tank which feeds thousands of acres of land wherein sugarcane & paddy are grown.
The sculptural work of the temples is based on Shastras & importance. One can collect the information to his maximum desire.

Attractions in Halebid

Hoysaleshwara temple
Standing on platform like a casket, is a sculptural extravaganza, richly endowed with most finely detailed scroll work in stone. The temple has got very good appearance. The Rashtrakutas built the big tank in front of the temple in the 9th Century. The town was named as Dwarasamudra. If one stands on the platform of the temple and sees around he will see the hills opposite and two big bulls facing the temple and Ganesha figure on the south. These attract the attention of even the children. The big temple consists of two temples, built inside. There are four doors in total. The minute sculptural works in respect of Dwarapalakas, i.e., crow and ornament can never be seen anywhere else. The bracket figures, which were fixed to the roofing, have been stolen and only one remains as a token. The figures carved in this temple are bigger than those of Belur, and some of the figures are carved on both sides of the stone.

Keddareshwara temple
Veeraballala II and his younger Queen Abhinva Ketala Devi built the temple of Kedareshwara in 1319 A.D. In the beginning, its Navaranga hall a smaller shrine on either side while over the main shrine raised a beautiful star-shaped vimana of smooth stone. The other walls, the tower, the doorway and the ceiling were more magnificently carved and the temple looked like a divine piece of jewellery than a building. The basement of the temple which stands on a high platform has a large number of sculptured friezes showing the marching of Elephants, charging Horse, Lion, Mythical animal, Swans and finally designed creeper scrolls, they are all from stories of Ramayana, Mahabharatha and Bhagavad-Gita in a large sculptured band. The upper parts of the wall bear nearly 180 beautifully carved images of various Gods and Goddesses.

Basti Hill
There are three Jain temples to the south of Basadihalli, two furlongs from Hoysaleshwara temple. Out of them Parshwanatha Swamy temple is an important one. The construction of this temple being of high grade and the appreciable carvings of the door tops high in Halebeeduu work. The twelve pillars that hold the doom have been cut in a fine and attractive manner. We can see even our image on each pillar. The pillars have been lathed well that the images differ from one another. The faces can be seen just as in a mirror. The Parshwanatha Swamy figure is made out of black stone and it is 14 feet in height. A seven-headed serpent has been carved on the head of this figure having curly hairs. The central mandir is of Adinatha Swamy and that is east of Shanthinatha Swamy.