Hoysala Temples - First Day

One of the things that I prefer to have is to have a breakfast option during my hotel stays. This one did not came with that option but certainly had a restaurant to eat. 

First stop was going to be 29 kms away from my hotel. The temple that I was visiting was in Javagal. Kind of reminded of our former fast bowler Javagal Srinath who also hails from Karnataka. He was not born here though.

It was the month of Dec 2024 and still the rain would drizzle now and then. The road was covered with greenery on both sides. Nature is best experienced during the rains. 

I reached my first temple for the day, the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Temple. The temple entrance is greeted by two beautiful small elephants. The temple is a trikuta (three shrines). 

When I reached there, a pooja was being conducted adjacent to the temple. As I entered inside the temple premises, the temple was relatively smaller in height compared to the ones that we often come across. There were hardly any people on this side of the temple. 

I find it strange that I do not even visit the local temples in my area and here I am fascinated by a temple hundreds of kms away that is said to built in the 13th century.

One of the fascinating part of the Hoysala architecture is the way the temple exterior is considered as a canvas for depicting the revered gods  Its almost like walking through art inside a museum. Every wall with gods and others depicted had a story to tell. 

The good thing was that they were in good condition, takes one back in time. The detailing and the intricacies of those sculptures were mesmerizing. I entered inside the temple, it was dimly lit and I was the only one inside. There were three statues i.e., of  Lakshminarasimha, Sridhara and Venugopala on all the three directions. 

The foundation of the temple had the circular lathe-turned pillars and is so fine that it felt almost machine cut. Its a wonder how the know-how of this work has been lost on us.

Paying my respect to the gods and admiring the inner sanctum, I exited the temple and moved to the next hall where the pooja was being conducted. There was also a goddess idol shrine over there. Offered my prayers, stood for a while attending the pooja and made my exit from the temple. 

From there, I headed towards Sri Veeranarayana swamy temple in Belavadi which was around 30-32 kms away. It was again a secluded place with hardly any tourist/people around. 

The Hoysala architecture was evident here too. This temple is dedicated to Vishnu.  As one walks towards the main shrine, the walls of the temple adorned with beautiful carvings makes its presence felt. Even the ceiling had Vishnu playing the flute.  

I bumped into the priest who informed me not to take photos of the idols, something that I abide by.

The approach to the main deity' room was almost dark with hardly any lights. I said my prayers and decided to explore the exterior of the temple which was similar to the earlier one in terms of the sculpting carved.

From there I went to visit my last temple of the day, Ancient Hoysala Shri Doddagaddavalli Lakshmi Devi Temple. This place was another 30 kms away.

Its always a good practice that when one is away from the toll free highways and all, a biker should always choose the car mode to avoid any kind of surprises that good map might come up with in terms of best route.

I almost ended up in someone's house but thankfully there was a way out and I was able to reach this temple from a less traveled road trail. As I was parking my bike near the temple, it started raining, more of drizzle. As I was making my way to the temple, a couple also entered the temple premises.

This temple is said to be built in the 12th century by a wealthy merchant Kalhana Ravuta and his wife Sahaja Devi during the reign of the famous Hoysala King Vishnuvardhana.

The highlight for me in this temple was the two demon shaped sculptures outside the shrine of Kali goddess who was hidden behind the open top half closed doors, with the face of goddess carved above it.

There were few local villagers here along with the security women who were doing pooja for the lord Shiva deity. The couple who had entered before me were taking pictures and when I started taking them, I was told no photos still I managed a few but not enough for my liking.

The temple complex consisted of the main temple and the entrance hall which also had a seating arrangement. One could see the main temple with the Hoysala emblem on the top from the entrance hall. There were also small temples within the complex but there were no idols in it.  

After the pooja was over, prasadam was distributed which I took with me. It was still raining and I decided to find a space for myself in the entrance hall. The villagers too joined along with their kids and of course the security guard whom I hated for not allowing me take pictures inside the temple.

I had a good conversation with a little girl who could speak in English but not Hindi and the mother had no clue what we were talking about. I finished my prasadam but the rain did not look it was going to stop anytime soon.

After spending sometime, I decided it was time to make a move. Put on my rain gear and walked towards my bike to head back to my hotel. 

It was time to call it a day.