Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas
ಹೊಯ್ಸಳರ ಪವಿತ್ರ ದೇವಾಲಯ ಸಮೂಹ
Between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Hoysala dynasty of Karnataka developed a temple style unlike anything before it: star-shaped platforms, soapstone carved to the fineness of ivory, and walls turned into continuous encyclopaedias of myth. In 2023 UNESCO inscribed three of these temples together as the Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas — Chennakeshava at Belur, where Vishnuvardhana's celestial bracket-figures made the style famous; Hoysaleswara at Halebidu, the twin Shiva temple of the old capital whose walls carry the densest narrative sculpture in India; and Keshava at Somanathapura, the last and most perfectly unified of them all. Belur and Halebidu lie a short drive apart in the Malnad foothills and are almost always seen together; Somanathapura sits on the Kaveri near Mysuru. Taken as a circuit they trace the whole arc of Hoysala art, from its dazzling debut to its serene culmination.