Belur and a bit of Halebid

The previous post about Shravanabelagola got a tad too lengthy, hence moved the Belur and Halebid experiences to a separate post. :)

After Shravanabelagola, we moved on to Hassan, and stayed at the Hotel Hassan Ashok (previously managed by ITDC, now privately managed). Beautifully landscaped, with a little fish pond, and some domesticated birds, this was a cleanly maintained hotel, which offered good rooms, equipped with all the necessities (and more), a super yummy breakfast, and to top it all FILTER COFFEE :). What more can one ask for? We crashed early that night to rest for the next day's travel to Belur and Halebid, which were around 35 km from Hassan. The breakfast next morning was simply awesome. (Our little chap was thrilled to feast on choco flakes, bread, orange marmalade, and jam, while I tried their south and north Indian spread as well.) And the filter coffee was absolutely perfect to help me overcome the most irritating runny nose that I had through the trip.

The first stop was Belur, after around a 45 minute drive. We stopped at the Chenna Keshava temple. I assumed we would quickly go around the temple, and cover a few more temples at Belur and then move to Halebid. I was proven wrong. We entered the temple, this time without socks to protect our feet. The heat was a little too much for the little guy :) But he managed pretty well, with just a few whines, and learnt that if he kept walking instead of standing still, the heat would not bother him much. We first went in to get Darshan of the avataar of Vishnu. On the way, we admired the pillars and the sculpture, the intricacies with which they were carved, without knowing the meaning behind each one of them. The husband told me we had to go get a guide who could explain the history et al behind the temple. I did not think much of the idea, until the guide finally joined us and started explaining the meaning behind every little art around the temple. I was blown away.

Garudar

Chenna meaning Handsome, and Keshava being the first name of Vishnu, this is a Vishnu temple (which is indicated by the Garudar present at the entrance), the construction work of which was started during the reign of King Vishnuvardhana of the Hoysala empire. King Vishnuvardhana was born a Jain. During his reign, he became a disciple of Ramanujacharya and converted to Vaishnavism. That is the explanation of how this Temple came into being during his reign. At the entrance of the temple, to our top left, there is a carving of the King Vishnuvardhana holding court along with his Guru Ramanujacharya. To the top right of the entrance, we have the King's grandson holding court, during whose reign the construction of the temple completed.

At either side of the entrance, we can see Rati and Kamadev. The significance of this being, Rati and Kamadev are always seen together. However, when one comes to pay respects to God, we have to leave all our worldly desires behind and come with a mind focused on the Lord. Hence here, Rati and Kamadev are separated, and standing on either side of the entrance. On the top of the entrance, there are two Makaras (Mythological animal) on either side. The Makaras are supposed to be a combination of five animals - pig's ears, eyes of a monkey, body of a fish, tail of a peacock and mouth of a crocodile. Also, on either side of the entrance is the emblem of Hoysala carved out. The name Hoysala came about from the ancient tale which indicates that a student named Sala saved his teacher and friends by killing a beast (supposed to be a combination of a lion and a tiger, which reminded me of a Liger that we saw in the Pine Mountain zoo at Atlanta!). Hoy means strike in Kannada, and the teacher yelled "Hoy Sala", as Sala was the bravest student of all, and the teacher believed that he could save them all from this beast.

Hoy Sala emblem

As we enter the temple, inside there are various pillars, each one unique in its design. The intricacies on the pillars left me awestruck. At some places, we can even insert our finger around little thin columns designed on the pillars. There is a carving of Mohini before we enter the sanctum sanctorum. Lord Vishnu took the form of a beautiful lady, to enchant the asuras and thus obtain the pot of Amrut and hand it over to the devas. This avatar of Lord Vishnu is carved with amazing precision, where the proportion of the nose is 1/3rd of the face, and the proportion of the face is 1/7th of the body. The facial expressions speak for themselves, and to indicate that it is Vishnu in the form of a lady, even the sacred thread (poonal) is kept intact in the carving. Wow!

Mohini - Vishnu avatar

As we went around the temple, we saw a work of Ravana trying to uproot the Mount Kailash, with Shiva and Parvati residing right on top of it. The story goes that when Ravana tried to move the mountain, not knowing that Lord Shiva and his consort reside on it, Lord Shiva pressed his smallest toe on the Mountain, and Ravana was held down by the Mountain and could not move. The depiction of this event was brought alive in the work of stone.

Shiva killing an asura

There were different avatars of Lord Shiva depicted, a few being the Kala Bhairava, and the Gajasura mardhana, each one of them carved with so much of detail. The Narasimha avataar catches ones eye... It is another beautiful work of art, highlighting small details with so much of precision.

Narasimha avataar

It was as cold  inside the temple premises as it was hot outside. The fact that the heat was reflected off the surface of the stone made the insides of the stone temple cool and very pleasant to be in. One of the most beautiful temples that I have visited, the guide revealed another interesting fact. The Dhwaja Sthambam that we see just outside the Sanctum Sanctorum indicates that the temple is functional. If there is no Dhwaja Sthambam, this means that the temple is no longer active/functional.

Belur and Halebid are said to have been attacked by Malik Kafur around the 14th century. The temple of Belur was protected and saved as soon as the attack started, so it didn't incur too much of damage. However, Halebid was destroyed to a great extent and is in a pretty dilapidated state.

Similar work of artistry (but destroyed to a great extent) can be seen in the Halebid temple (which is a few kms away from Belur), only major difference being, this is a temple of Lord Shiva, and it has Nandi residing at the entrance. Also, there is no Dhwaja Sthambam at this temple.

Nandi

These temple towns are a must visit. Anyone even just interested in listening to stories can appreciate these beautiful pieces of work, each one of them having so many stories to tell, of an era long gone by!

Shravanabelagola

Being a long Dassera weekend, after a lot of thought as to what trip could be done overnight, the husband finalised on Hassan. We planned to cover the three temple-towns around Hassan - viz., Shravanabelagola, Belur and Halebid. When we started on the trip, I was pretty much geared up for another family outing and some more fun with the little one. However, the trip ended up offering me more than what I expected! I never imagined that temple sculptures could make me so excited that I would end up writing about them! Phew. What an experience.

We started from home (Bangalore) at a very relaxed pace (left at around 12 noon). On the way, after stopping over to meet and touch a few cows and talk to some interested villagers, we spotted the Gomateshwara atop the hill from afar. When we parked near the temple after 2 hours of driving, we were told that we had to either walk bare-foot or with socks. So donning pairs of socks and caps to beat the heat, we took a couple of bottles of water and started the climb. As we climbed higher and higher, the view got more and more beautiful. After the climb of the first major flight of stairs, we reached the Odegal Basadi. A construction of one of its kind, the picture below will speak for the description of the construction type.

All around this Basadi (or Basti), there were inscriptions in ancient scripts, which were preserved by a glass enclosure propped around them. A lot of these temples around Hassan have been destroyed, and hence the Government is working hard to preserve the amazing work of artistry around.

After climbing further up, we got another peek of Gomateshwara's gigantic statue. Each of these little peeks seemed to egg us on to get to the destination fast to see the entire statue. Unlike various other temples, this statue, due to its sheer size, is in an open area, which looks similar to the "mittham" in the houses of the olden days down south. There are statues of various other Teerthankaras all around this main idol. All of them in various postures of meditation. The size of the statue is what struck me the most. Every few years, there is a Mahamastakabhishekam conducted, where abhishekams are performed for this huge an idol.

The view of this town is wonderful from this high. The Kalyani pond below and the Chandragiri hill across is also a pretty sight to see. And although there are few more places to see around here, we decided to stick to only this one, as we needed to rest and prepare for Belur and Halebid the next day. And I didn't even have an inkling of the surprise that was in store for me at Belur!!