Place · pre-Vijayanagara Shaiva temple cluster · India
Hemakuta Hill Temples, Hampi
Also known as Hemakuta temple group
Hemakuta Hill, the low granite outcrop directly south of the Virupaksha Temple, carries the oldest surviving temples at Hampi — a cluster of over thirty small Shaiva shrines built between the 9th and 14th centuries by the Kalyani Chalukyas, the Hoysalas and the early Sangama kings of Vijayanagara. They are smaller, simpler and squatter than the Vijayanagara imperial temples of the 15th-16th centuries that surround them. Hemakuta is traditionally the hill where Shiva performed his tapas before marrying Pampa (the river Tungabhadra personified as a goddess), from whom Hampi takes its name.
- Date
- 900–1400
- Periods
- pre-Vijayanagara / early Vijayanagara
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Patron dynasty
- Kalyani Chalukya|Hoysala|Sangama Vijayanagara
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 15.334, 76.461
Connections (1)
- Site withinHampi / Vijayanagara
Hemakuta Hill rises directly south of the Virupaksha Temple inside the central Hampi urban zone. The low granite outcrop carries over thirty Shaiva shrines of the 9th-14th centuries — the oldest surviving temples at Hampi, built before the Vijayanagara imperial foundation.