01Four shrines, one hall
Most Hoysala temples have one, two or three shrines. Doddagaddavalli has four, opening in the four directions off a single central hall: Mahalakshmi to the east, Kali to the north, Shiva, worshipped here as Lakshmi’s brother, to the west, and Vishnu to the south, whose murti is lost. The walls are plain compared to Belur and Halebidu, built a few years later; the soapstone carving is concentrated on the doorways and towers. An inscription of 1113 CE records that the merchant Kullahana Rahuta and his wife Sahaja Devi built it in the reign of Vishnuvardhana.
02The vetalas at Kali’s door
The Kali shrine is the one visitors remember: at its door stand two vetalas, emaciated guardian figures with bulging eyes and bared ribs, carved with startling force. The temple sits in a walled court with small corner shrines among paddy fields, a few kilometres off the Hassan–Belur road. It is a protected monument and still worshipped by the village.
The life of this place
- 1113 CEKullahana Rahuta and Sahaja Devi build the temple.
About 16 km north-west of Hassan; best seen on the way to Belur and Halebidu.
