Lakshminarayana Temple, Hosaholalu

The Lakshminarayana Temple located in Hosaholalu, a small town in Mandya district of Karnataka, India was built by king Vira Someshwara of the Hoysala Empire in 1250 CE. The date of the temple has been ascertained by the style of the sculptures and architecture and compares closely with the contemporeneous Hoysala architecture at Javagalu, Nuggehalli, Somanathapura etc. The town of Hosaholalu is about 60 kilometres (37 mi) from Hassan and 45 kilometres (28 mi) from the heritage city Mysore, the cultural capital of Karnataka state.[1]

Temple plan

The temple is an example of a trikuta vimana (three shrined) temple with only the central shrine exhibiting a tower (superstructure) on top.[2] The lateral shrines are square with five projections and no special features. The central shrine is well decorated and its tower has a sukanasi (nose) which is actually the tower of the vestibule that connects the shrine (cella containing the image of the deity) to the hall (mantapa).[3] The material used for the temple construction is chloritic schist or Soapstone.[4] The temple is built on a jagati (platform), a Hoysala innovation that elevates the whole temple by about a metre.[5][6]

The temple as a whole belongs to the 2nd phase of Hoysala building activity (13th century), with two sets of eaves.[7] The first eave is located where the superstructure meets the temple outer wall and another eave running around the temple and about a metre below the first eave. In between the two eaves are decorative miniature towers on pilasters, with sculptured wall images of Hindu deities below the second eave. Being a Vaishnava temple, most of the images represent some form of Vishnu, his consort and his attendants and there are 120 such images. In all there are 24 sculptures of Vishnu standing upright holding in his four arms the four attributes, a conch, a wheel, a lotus and a mace in all possible permutations.[8] Below the panel of deities is the base of the wall consisting of six decorative rectangular mouldings of equal width which run all around the temple.[9]

The six horizontal mouldings are intricately sculptured and are called friezes.[10] Going from top to bottom; the first frieze depicts birds (hansa), the second depicts aquatic monsters (makara), the third frieze has depictions of Hindu epics and other mythological and puranic stories narrated in the clockwise direction (direction of devotee circumabulation), the fourth frieze has leafy scrolls, the fifth and sixth friezes have a procession of horses and elephants respectively.[11] In the frieze that depicts the epics, the Ramayana starts from the western corner of the southern shrine and the Mahabharata starts from the northern side of the central shrine vividly illustrating the demise of many heroes of the famous war between Pandavas and Kauravas.[8]

The interior of the temple consists of a closed hall (mantapa) of modest size with four beautiful lathe turned pillars supporting the roof.[12] The four central pillars divide the hall into nine equal bays and nine decorated ceilings.[13] The sanctum of the three shrines contain the images of Venugopala, Narayana in the middle and Lakshminarasimha; all forms (Avatar) of Vishnu.[8]

Notes

  1. ^ Foekema (1996), p71
  2. ^ Depending on the number of towers, the temples are classified as ekakuta (one), dvikuta (two), trikuta (three), chatushkuta (four) and panchakuta (five). Most Hoysala temples are ekakuta (one tower), dvikuta (two towers) or trikuta (three towers over three shrines) (Foekema 1996, p25)
  3. ^ Foekema (1996), p22
  4. ^ Kamath (2001), p136
  5. ^ The Jagati serves the purpose of a pradakshinapatha (circumambulation) as the shrine has no such arrangement (Kamath, 2001, p135)
  6. ^ This is a Hosala innovation, Arthikaje, Mangalore. "History of Karnataka-Architecture". © 1998-00 OurKarnataka.Com,Inc. http://www.ourkarnataka.com/states/history/historyofkarnataka32.htm. Retrieved 2007-06-16. 
  7. ^ A projecting roof overhanging a wall (Foekema 1996, p93)
  8. ^ a b c Foekema (1966), p72
  9. ^ Generally, Hoysala temples built in the 13th century have 6 mouldings while those built a century earlier have 5 mouldings (Foekema 1996, p28)
  10. ^ A rectangular band of stone decorated with sculpture (Foekema 1996, p93)
  11. ^ Foekema (1966), p29
  12. ^ This is a common feature of Western Chalukya-Hoysala temples (Kamath 2001, p117)
  13. ^ A bay is a square or rectangular compartment in the hall (Foekema 1966, p93)

References

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