We stayed at the Hoysala Village Resort on Belur Road in Hassan as part of out trip to Kukke Subrahmanya recently. That allowed us to make a quick jaunt to Belur.
Belur is about 35 KM from Hassan along this road. The road condition is good and can be reached in about half hour. But, we decided to take the slower mode of transport thats most popular with the villagers here - a tempo that shuttles between Hassan and Belur stopping every 200 meters to pick up and drop people and goods.
The main temple in Belur is dedicated to Lord Chenna Keshava, another name of Lord Vishnu and the construction is typical Hoysala style.
It almost looked like every part of the temple here tries to beat the other in terms of architectural grandeur.
Every pillar seems unique. Someone explain to me how this kind of symmetry could be achieved without modern machines!
Some more clicks from the temple below.
Halebid, another site of Hoysala architecture is located close to Belur at a disance of about 16KM.
You can see striking similarities with Hoysala temples at other places -
Turuvekere - 16 Aug 2009
Shimsha & Somnathpur - Nov 2009
Belur is about 35 KM from Hassan along this road. The road condition is good and can be reached in about half hour. But, we decided to take the slower mode of transport thats most popular with the villagers here - a tempo that shuttles between Hassan and Belur stopping every 200 meters to pick up and drop people and goods.
The main temple in Belur is dedicated to Lord Chenna Keshava, another name of Lord Vishnu and the construction is typical Hoysala style.
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| Main temple area |
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| Temple entrance |
It almost looked like every part of the temple here tries to beat the other in terms of architectural grandeur.
Every pillar seems unique. Someone explain to me how this kind of symmetry could be achieved without modern machines!
Some more clicks from the temple below.
You can see striking similarities with Hoysala temples at other places -
Turuvekere - 16 Aug 2009
Shimsha & Somnathpur - Nov 2009
amazing!
ReplyDeleteYep, truly amazing!
DeletePillars remind me of fractals!
ReplyDeleteTrue very similar! I really wonder what tools they might have used to make this a thousand years ago!
DeleteIndeed. I guess human creativity never was constrained by trifles such as lack of tools!
ReplyDeleteNice write, good work Pramod. I should visit this temple soon.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jadu! You should definitely make a visit. Its roughly a 4 hour drive from Bangalore.
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