Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas
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How it came to be
The Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas are three temple complexes in Karnataka, southern India: the Chennakeshava Temple at Belur, the Hoysaleswara Temple at Halebidu and the Keshava Temple at Somanathapura. The Hoysala period lasted from about 1000 to 1346, and some 1,500 temples were built in 958 centres. According to UNESCO, the Hoysala style selected features of contemporary and earlier temples to create an identity distinct from neighbouring kingdoms.
At Belur, the early capital, King Vishnuvardhana, who came to power in 1110, commissioned a temple to Vishnu in 1117, and 118 inscriptions dated from 1117 to the 18th century survive in the complex. The king later moved his capital to Dorasamudra, now Halebidu, where his officer Ketamalla built the Hoysaleswara Temple to Shiva from around 1121. The Somanathapura temple was built by Somanatha, a general of King Narasimha III, at the centre of a new town he founded, and consecrated in 1258.
In the early 14th century Halebidu was sacked twice by armies of the Delhi Sultanate, and the capital fell into ruin and neglect. Fifteenth-century inscriptions record that the Somanathapura temple was badly damaged, and it was repaired in the 16th century with support from the Vijayanagara Empire. The three temples were inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2023.
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