Hoysala

The Hoysala kings of Dorasamudra built some 1,500 temples in the 12th and 13th centuries, of which about a hundred survive. Vishnuvardhana began the Chennakeshava at Belur in 1117; the Hoysaleswara at Halebidu, his capital, followed within a few decades; the Keshava at Somanathapura was consecrated in 1268. All three stand on a star-shaped platform, the jagati, which doubles as the path of pradakshina.

The walls are built of chloritic schist, soft when quarried and hard once exposed, and carved in horizontal friezes from the ground up: elephants for strength, then horsemen, then scrolls, then scenes from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Bhagavata, then rows of deities, each frieze running the full length of the building without repeating. The sculptors often signed their work; the names of Mallitamma, Dasoja and Chavana are cut into the stone. Inside, the pillars are lathe-turned and the ceilings are carved lotus domes. In 2023 Belur, Halebidu and Somanathapura together were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.