Belur: Belur(222 kms from Bangalore and 38 kms from Hassan) originally the capital of the Hoysala kings. The main attaraction of the place is the Keshava Temple built by Vishnuvardhana. It is the only Hoysala temple still in active worship. First they build this temple prototype & it took 20 years to complete. The same prototype was made it in bigger size with all the sculptures & it took 103 years complete. This temple contains 48 pillars and the specialty is, every pillar having unique design. This temple was filled by sculptures like elephants, about war, dance, art, epics, etc. we will take several days to understand every sculptures. Its star shape temple & it contain 32 corners.
Halebid: This place is 15km from Belur, know as Dwarasamudra. It was once the seat of Hoysala Empire. Halebid having two temple under the single platform. So its called Double temple also. Hoysaleshwara and Shanteswara both dedicated to Shiva. Shiva is the main god for this temple. Generally hoysala architecture not followed Square shape, they are using Star shape. It means you will find 64 corners in this temple & 108 pillars. Reason is they can accommodate more sculptures outside and inside the temple. We can see beautiful and bigger two nandi in this temple.
If we go around the temple in three stage we can see the Durbar of Lord Shiva, the childhood plays of Bala Krishna, the fight between Karna and Arjuna the lifting of Govardhanagiri by Krishna Gajendramoksha on the western side and the shooting of Matsya Yantra. The story of Krishna and Arjuna can also be seen. The monkey army giving the ornaments to Sri Rama Chakra Vyuha Kote; Krishna and Arjuna getting down from the chariot and taking bath in the pond on hearing the death news of Abhimanyu. The demon King Ravana is lifting Kailasa Parvatha; these are all the important figures.
Shravanabelagola: Shravanabelagola is a holy place for Jains. A jain centre famous for monolith statue of Gomateshwara, 17 meters height, carved out of a single stone, Know as Bahubali. Its world tallest monolith statue. The town is located in the midst of two hills. There is a tank in the midst of this town called “Belagola” and the town is called by the same name.
