It was since a very long time I wanted to visit this temple. Apparently I had watched the Kannada movie directed by M S Sathyu, Ijjodu and I fell in love with this architectural beauty. Since we wanted to celebrate 5 year of inspiring partnership with our NGO folks, we decided to visit this place for a day. And thats how we happened to land at this place.
As we drove past the Halebidu and through the beautiful serene lake, I could remember some of the scenes from that movie.
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| Beautiful lake on the way to Belavadi |
Belavadi is located 29 km southeast of Chikmagalur town on the Chikmagalur-Javagal highway and 10 km north of Halebidu. It is a very small neighborhood welcoming us into its natural set up of a lake at the entrance of the village. As we walked towards the temple, we were overwhelmingly attracted by its beauty. Fortunately, there were no people other than us at the temple.
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| Belavadi Veera Narayana Temple |
It is said that, this ornate trikuta (three towers) temple was built in 1200 CE by Hoysala Veera Ballala II. And each of the shrines has a complete superstructure (tower on top of shrine) and is one of the largest examples of Hoysala architecture. While the famous temples at Belur and Halebidu are known for their intricate sculptures, this temple is known for its architecture.
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| Panoramic view of the temple |
We were all stunned by its remarkable architecture and wondered how good the sculptors thought process would be while building this temple. One striking sight that remains in ones memory after seeing this temple is the beauty of the pillars and its colors.
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| Pillar at the temple |
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| Pillars and Mantapa inside the temple |
And those carvings on the outer walls were stunning. It was a kind of aesthetic overload to our eyes after seeing those highly skilled work on the walls of the temple. Wonder who would've trained those sculptors on those required skills.
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| Carvings on the walls of the temple |
And the best part of the visit was the place was not crowded in spite of being a Sunday. Good that some good places are left out unspoiled. To the extent that there are no food joints or restaurants in Belavadi and no place near the temple to sit and do a picnic either.
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| Vimana Gopura |
Well, after having craved so much to visit this place, witnessing this magnificent piece of architecture made me ecstatically happy.
More pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/srikanthap/sets/72157625598365324/
Srik
3 comments:
It was great visit... the place is really superb and photos also!
A terrific commemorative visit brilliantly captured by your photographs.
It is good to know that you have a fall back profession, god forbid, if you ever need one.
Hey nice photos!
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