Place · Hoysala temple · India
Somnathpur Keshava
The most complete surviving Hoysala temple, built by Soma Dandanayaka — a general of Hoysala king Narasimha III — at Somnathpur in Mysuru district, Karnataka, in 1268 CE and never subsequently altered. The three-shrined (trikuta) Chennakeshava temple holds Keshava, Janardhana and Venugopala — three forms of Vishnu — around a shared mandapa. The three star-shaped sanctums each carry their own carved pyramidal shikhara, intact unlike Belur and Halebidu. The exterior plinth has eight friezes of elephants, horsemen, scrolls, mythological scenes and Hoysala kings; the ceiling is a lotus-canopy of exceptional fineness. UNESCO World Heritage Site 2023.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Patron dynasty
- Hoysala
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 12.276, 76.880
Connections (2)
- Teaching lineageHalebidu Hoysaleswara
Somanathapura, finished in 1268, completes the idiom developed at Belur and Halebidu over the preceding century and a half: a star-shaped plan with three shrines around one hall, carved from top to bottom, signed by its sculptors, and — unlike the other two — actually finished. It was built by a general rather than a king, and its images were mutilated in later raids, so it is no longer in worship and can be maintained as a monument.
- In the same set asBelur Chennakeshava
Belur of 1117, Halebidu of 1121 and Somanathapura of 1258 were inscribed together in 2023 as the Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas. Belur introduces the bracket figures and the lathe-turned pillars, Halebidu takes the surface carving to the point where the building was never finished, and Somanathapura is the plan brought off completely in one campaign.
On these journeys
Sources
Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas — UNESCO
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