Close-up view of ornate Lakshmi Narasimha Temple, Javagallu(Karnataka)
The Lakshminarasimha temple at Javagal (also called Javagallu) is an example of mid-13th century Hoysala architecture. Javagal is located about 50 km from Hassan city and about 20 km from Halebidu in Karnataka state, India. Halebidu is historically important as the erstwhile capital of the Hoysala empire. The temple, whose main deity is Narasimha (a form of the Hindu god Vishnu), was built in 1250 A.D. by the Hoysala Empire King Vira Someshwara.This temple is a protected monument under the Karnataka state division of the Archaeological Survey of India.
The decorative plan of the outer walls of the shrines and the mantapa (hall) is of the "new kind", with two eaves that run around the temple. According to art historian Gerard Foekema, the wall panel images (one hundred and forty in all), and the reliefs and friezes that abound in this temple have a relaxed quality of workmans...hip about them, and in no Hoysala temple do these appear more "folkish in character". In the "new kind" of decorative articulation, the first heavy eaves runs below the superstructure and all around the temple with a projection of about half a meter. The second eaves runs around the temple about a meter below the first. In between the two eaves are the miniature decorative towers (Aedicula) on pilasters. Below the second eaves are the wall panel of images of Hindu deities and their attendants in relief. Below this, at the base are the six equal width rectangular moldings (frieze). Starting from the top, the friezes depict; Hamsa (goose) in the first frieze, Makara in the second, epics and other stories in the third (usually from the Hindu epic Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and stories of Krishna), leafy scrolls in the fourth, horses in the fifth and elephants in the sixth (bottom frieze).
Photo credit: @Bikash Das
The Lakshminarasimha temple at Javagal (also called Javagallu) is an example of mid-13th century Hoysala architecture. Javagal is located about 50 km from Hassan city and about 20 km from Halebidu in Karnataka state, India. Halebidu is historically important as the erstwhile capital of the Hoysala empire. The temple, whose main deity is Narasimha (a form of the Hindu god Vishnu), was built in 1250 A.D. by the Hoysala Empire King Vira Someshwara.This temple is a protected monument under the Karnataka state division of the Archaeological Survey of India.
The decorative plan of the outer walls of the shrines and the mantapa (hall) is of the "new kind", with two eaves that run around the temple. According to art historian Gerard Foekema, the wall panel images (one hundred and forty in all), and the reliefs and friezes that abound in this temple have a relaxed quality of workmans...hip about them, and in no Hoysala temple do these appear more "folkish in character". In the "new kind" of decorative articulation, the first heavy eaves runs below the superstructure and all around the temple with a projection of about half a meter. The second eaves runs around the temple about a meter below the first. In between the two eaves are the miniature decorative towers (Aedicula) on pilasters. Below the second eaves are the wall panel of images of Hindu deities and their attendants in relief. Below this, at the base are the six equal width rectangular moldings (frieze). Starting from the top, the friezes depict; Hamsa (goose) in the first frieze, Makara in the second, epics and other stories in the third (usually from the Hindu epic Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and stories of Krishna), leafy scrolls in the fourth, horses in the fifth and elephants in the sixth (bottom frieze).
Photo credit: @Bikash Das
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