India has so much
to offer in terms of incredible world heritage sites and it was a privilege to visit couple of them (Halebidu and Belur) recently.
Took a roadtrip from Bangalore to Hassan via NH 48 covering 215 kilometers taking approximately 4 hours to reach Halebidu. Drive is beautiful and the road conditions excellent.
Halebidu (Reference
Wikipedia) is located in Hassan
District, Karnataka, India. Halebidu (which was previously called Dorasamudra or
Dwarasamudra) was the regal capital of the Hoysala
Empire in the 12th century. It is home to some of the best
examples of Hoysala architecture.
Most notable are the Hoysaleswara and Kedareswara temples, which are lord Shiva’s temples.
In Belur (Reference Wikipedia) is the Chennakeshava temple complex which contains the Chennakesava Temple (dedicated to Chennakeshava, meaning handsome Vishnu) as the centre piece, surrounded by the Kappe Chennigraya temple built by Shantaladevi, queen of kingVishnuvardhana.
It is very difficult to
describe in words how poetic the stone carvings are and the perfection with
which each sculpture is given life. In front of each temple, there are monolithic Nandi statues In Belur (Reference Wikipedia) is the Chennakeshava temple complex which contains the Chennakesava Temple (dedicated to Chennakeshava, meaning handsome Vishnu) as the centre piece, surrounded by the Kappe Chennigraya temple built by Shantaladevi, queen of kingVishnuvardhana.
One can find Mahabharatha epic depicted in the scultpures, which is really amazing. It includes the one depicting Arjuna fighting with Bheeshma while Krishna is the charioteer and under the same, depiction of Bheesham lying on the bed of arrows.
You can also see in the pictures, a sculpture of a young couple in which the head of the young woman is of a donkey, which according to our guide depicts that when in love, even a donkey headed girl looks beautiful.
