Well Worth the Trip!

We boarded our bus this morning hoping that the many hours spent getting here to Hassan yesterday would prove worthwhile. An hour or so later, having bounced over some narrow roads out into the surrounding countryside, we arrived in Halebidu at Hoysaleswara Temple, built over a period of eighty-six years by Hoysala rulers in the twelfth century but never finished. What a revelation!

Intricate carvings of Hindu gods and goddesses, dancing girls and dwarfs, elephants and mythological creatures, scenes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata completely covered the inner and outer surfaces of the temple. The soapstone used made exquisite details possible and the stone's later hardening kept the detail crisp over all these centuries.

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CLICK A SECOND TIME FOR A REALLY BIG PICTURE!

After a leisurely ninety minute walk around the star-shaped main building listening to Minaka's recounting of various stories connected with the images crowding the walls, we were even more impressed than when we had started.

Minaka then took us to a little visited nearby Jain basadis (temple complex). The Hoysala monarch responsible for Hoysaleswara converted fro Jainism, but his wife did not; the temple we toured was one of those at which she worshiped. It, too, was fascinating, especially since it featured the first Jain imagery we've encountered.

Following lunch, we walked around and through our third temple of the day, the Channekeshava Temple in Belur. The intricacy of the carvings here surpassed even those found in Halebidu!

While zipping around from temple to temple we also had the chance, as we do every day, to observe life "up close and personal" with some striking photographic results.