Description1150 CE Hoysaleswara temple Halebidu Karnataka, Krishna with his bansuri.jpg
English: *Halebid – also referred to as Halebidu, Dwarasamudra, Dorasamudra – was a major city prior to the 14th-century in Hoysala kingdom. It is now a small town in south Karnataka.
The temple belongs to the Shaivism tradition of Hinduism. Like major historic Hindu temple complexes on the Indian subcontinent, this temple reverentially includes legends and ideas of Vaishnavism and Shaktism traditions of Hinduism.
It was built in the first half of 12th century.
During the early 14th century, Halebidu temple site along with others were sacked, looted and much artwork was damaged (particularly nose/face, limbs, sexual organs) by Muslim invaders from northern India (Khilji dynasty and Tughlaq dynasty of Delhi Sultanate).
The relief panels present legends from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Bhagavata Purana and secular fables found in Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Vedic deities such as Agni, Indra and Surya, various avatars of Vishnu, the Hindu goddesses such as Saraswati, Lakshmi avatars, Durga, Kali among others are presented. The carving is three dimensional where the deep reliefs often emerge as statues with depth. Panels are continuous, with one perspective showing one part of the legend, a perpendicular perspective of the same column or wall or corner showing another part of the same legend.
The carving material was soapstone.
Above: This panel shows the Hindu legend about Krishna as the musician. The music is serenely soothing and inherently meaningful to all creatures – humans, animals of different type (cow, deer, antelope, others), all of whom looking lovingly at Krishna.
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Captions
Reliefs at Hoysaleshvara temple at Halebid Dorasamudra