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Hoyasala Temple Architecture (view source)
Revision as of 11:22, 25 March 2019
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The Hoysalas were a minor dynasty of kings who came to rule central and southern Karnataka during the 12<sup>th</sup> and 13<sup>th</sup> centuries. Though they had been ruling before, their political fortunes rose after the fall of the great Chalukyas of Kalyani, also known as the Later Chalukyas. It is then that they expanded in size. Many small dynasties rose after the Chalukyas to claim or reclaim many regions. The Hoysala were one of them.
They ruled the areas which roughly correspond to what is now the district of Hassan, some parts of Chikamagalur, Shivamoga, Mandya, Coorg, Chitradurga etc. They were sandwiched between the two great powers: the Chalukyas in the north and the Cholas of Thanjavur in the south. Initially they were a small kingdom straddling the mountains of the Western Ghats. In the 11<sup>th</sup> century they remained the vassals of the Chalukyas, gradually enlarging their territory.
Only in the 12<sup>th</sup> century did they rise and become powerful when Hoysala king Viraballala defeated the Chalukyas of Kalyani and put an end to the great empire. For about 200 years they reigned supreme and became what the Cholas and the Pandyas were in Tamil Nadu, and what the Chalukyas were in Karnataka. They continued to wax and wane in power until the invaders and iconoclasts of the Delhi Sultanate arrived in south India.
When the Vijayanagar Empire rose in 1329 under Harihar and Bukka, they submitted themselves willingly to the Vijaynagar Empire so that a united front against the Islamic invaders could be created in south India. In 1342, Ballala III died and the Hoysala Empire was fully incorporated in the successor empire, the Great Vijaynagar Empire.
==Hoyasala Architecture==
The Hoysalas, as mentioned, were great patrons of art. The vibrant temple tradition that was flourishing in south India in those times sustained guilds of architects, sculptors and other artisans who worked as a unit.
The kings just commissioned the project. The temples were constructed by professional and specialized guilds. These guilds easily travelled from one kingdom to another and worked for anyone who commissioned the project. That is why knowledge of architecture and sculpture was easily transferred from one dynasty to another. The art of temple building in Karnataka in what is called as the Vesara style was well developed during the time of the Chalukyas of Kalyani. The Hoysala merely continued and developed it. The major innovation during their time was the exquisite embellishing of the temple exteriors by extremely fine sculpture.
They built their beautiful temples in soapstone, variously called as potstone too. The stone is dark gray or black in color and is very soft when quarried. However, within a decade it becomes very hard on exposure to wind and rain. This peculiar quality makes it perfect for deep, miniature and exquisite sculpting. That is why the Hoysala temples are beautifully embellished with exquisite sculpture in high or low relief, or freely sculpted sculptures fitted later into the temples.
===The Hoysala Temple===
A Hoysala temple has many parts, interconnected to each other. Thus, unlike the Tamil Nadu temples, a Hoysala temple is a complete coherent whole; a connected building which does not break in continuity.[[File:Plan of a Hoysala Temple – Veera Narayana, Belavadi.jpg|thumb|371x371px|''Plan of a Hoysala Temple – Veera Narayana, Belavadi''|link=http://dharmawiki.org/index.php/File:Plan_of_a_Hoysala_Temple_%E2%80%93_Veera_Narayana,_Belavadi.jpg]]The simplest form of Hoysala building consists of just the shrine of the primary deity and a ''mandapam'' attached to it, which can either be closed or open. In some bigger temples both open and closed halls are to be found. As discussed above, the ''sanctum'' is for the deity and the ''mandapam'' is for the devotees to gather and have ''darshan''. In most temples, between the ''mandapam'' and the ''garbha-griha'', there is ''antarala'', or the vestibule. In some bigger temples there are entrance porches, or ''mukha mandapams'' before the ''mandapams'' at the entrance of the temple. Thus there are five primary constituent parts of a Hoysala temple:
#''garbha-griha''
#''antarala''
#''mandapam'' (closed)
#''mandapam'' (open)
#''mukha mandapam'' (porch)
The ''vimana'' of the Hoysala temple is extremely articulated, artistic and complex in nature and is what attracts the tourists most of all. Gerard Foekema explains:[[File:Plans of the Hoysala Vimana - a-b) Full Star c-d) Half Star e-f) Staggered Square.png|thumb|''Plans of the Hoysala Vimana - a-b) Full Star c-d) Half Star e-f) Staggered Square''|link=http://dharmawiki.org/index.php/File:Plans_of_the_Hoysala_Vimana_-_a-b)_Full_Star_c-d)_Half_Star_e-f)_Staggered_Square.png]]<blockquote>''“Its inside forms a strong contrast to its outside: the inside is simply square in plan with plain walls, hence the name cella, the outside is complicated in plan and is profusely decorated. The outside plan is a star, a staggered square or a combination of star and square, and consequently the walls show many projections and recesses.”<ref>Foekema, Gerard. ''A Complete Guide to Hoysala Temples''. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1996. p. 21.</ref>''</blockquote>The ''antarala'' too is plain from the inside and has just the space for the priest to officiate between the devotee and the deity. Its walls are plain or barely decorated from the inside. The mandapams are divided into bays. Their ceilings are decorted with ''padma'' motifs, oral patterns and other decorative motifs. On the outside the walls are profusely decorated, but their decoration is integrated with that of the outer walls of the ''garbha-griha'' and is inconspicuous. It also has a roof in the form of a nose like structure protruding from the ''vimanas''. It is called ''shukanasika''.
In most Hoysala temples, the closed ''mandapam'' has either no windows, or perforated windows which let in some light. It has thick walls. It is a large hall and hence there are four pillars to support the roof. Both outside and inside of the ''mandapam'' are decorated. The pillars are the famous lathe-turned and the ceilings of the bays of the ''mandapam'' are exquisitely decorated. It is large but smaller than the open ''mandapam''.
The open ''mandapam'' has an intricate plan. It is a staggered square of many sizes and variations. The number of pillars and bays vary here and the open ''mandapam'' of Veera Narayan temple Belavadi has one of the largest open ''mandapams'' of any Hoysala temple.[[File:Plans of the Maha Mandapam.png|thumb|115x115px|''Plans of the Maha Mandapam''|link=http://dharmawiki.org/index.php/File:Plans_of_the_Maha_Mandapam.png]]As it is open it has only parapet walls on which many pillars rest. The inside of the parapet has ''kakshasana'' (seating bench). The ''mukha mandapam'' is very small, just an opening with a roof and two pillars supporting it.
===Hoysala Sculpture===
[[File:Hoysala sculpture at Somnathapur, Mysore, Karnataka.png|thumb|''Hoysala sculpture at Somnathapur, Mysore, Karnataka''|link=http://dharmawiki.org/index.php/File:Hoysala_sculpture_at_Somnathapur,_Mysore,_Karnataka.png]]In the Hindu temple, sculpture is inextricably enmeshed with architecture to the point where the boundary between them becomes unrecognizable. This is another feature which distinguishes the Hindu temple from other sacred architectures in the world. In the Hoysala architecture this feature becomes even more exaggerated. As Gerard Foekema says, in Karnataka, mainly in Kalyani Chalukya and Hoysala temples, architecture is decorated with architecture. These architectural parts are both functional and decorative. Since most of these parts are constructed by chiseling hence they are technically sculpture but play the function of architecture as well.
Beginning from the top, the Hoysala temple has the quintessential ''kalasha'', containing the temple seed. It was built in stone, but in most temples it was lost during Islamic invasions, but some like temples at Mosale have their ''kalasha'' intact. The Veera Narayana temple, Belavadi also has the ''kalashas'' intact in all three of its shrines. The temples that have lost their ''kalasha'' have replaced it with a metal one.
Below the ''kalasha'' there is the domed roof, which is actually a sculpted stone and given the shape of the roof. It is square if the plan of the ''garbha-griha'' and ''shikhara'' is square and star if the plan is that of a star. “Below this giant topping roof, the tower consists of many more domed roofs with square plan, all of them much smaller, and also crowned by ''kalasas''. They are mixed with other small roofs of different shapes, most of them finely decorated. The top of the wall of a closed hall also shows this kind of decorated miniature roofs, but only one single row of them, and also above the heavy eaves of open halls and porches one row of them can be found. The tower of the shrine mostly consists of three or four of this kind of rows, the top of the nose mostly of two or three of them.”<ref>Ibid. p. 28.</ref>[[File:Hoysala Sculpture, Aralaguppe, Tumkuru, Karnataka.png|thumb|''Hoysala Sculpture, Aralaguppe, Tumkuru, Karnataka''|link=http://dharmawiki.org/index.php/File:Hoysala_Sculpture,_Aralaguppe,_Tumkuru,_Karnataka.png]]The Vesara style has evolved basically from the south Indian Dravida style with some Nagara embellishment. Hence, essentially it is a Dravida style which later evolved into a separate branch. This is why the Dravida feature of the ''vimana'' having many ''talas'' are also present in the Vesara styles. The rows of decorated miniature roofs that Foekema talks about in the above excerpt are actually these ''talas'' which are so decorated and so deeply enmeshed into each other that they look like a single structure.
Below the ''vimana'' there is the hanging eave which is often half a metre long and is very heavy. It provides the shade to the sculpture on the walls. Below this eave two different architectural idioms are usually found. They are called the Old Hoysala type and the New Hoysala type. The Old Hoysala is very similar to the Chalukya style. The New Hoysala style features many innovations and it is this style which gave the Hoysala temples their characteristic touch. Foekema explains the differences between the two types:<blockquote>''“In the Old kind of temples, the wall-images are placed below the decorative towers, and below the wall-images the base of the wall consists of a set of 5 different horizontal mouldings, one of them a row of blocks. In the New kind of temples there is a second eave running around the temple, about one meter below the first one; the decorative towers are placed between the two eaves, and the wall-images below the lower one. The base of the wall consists of a set of 6 equal rectangular mouldings, each of them of the same width.”''<ref>Ibid.</ref></blockquote>The wall images that form a continuous row all around the walls of the ''garbha-griha'' and ''antarala'' are one of the most beautiful features of the Hoysala temple. They are exquisitely sculpted and are often capped by an overhanging tree or a creeper. The images on the ''rathas'', or the projections, are of major deities, often the different forms of the primary deity in the shrine. This image is flanked by ''chanvara'' bearers or attendants. Lesser divinities occupy other less important projections.
Below this is the temple base. It is the temple base and the second eave which differentiate the Old and the New styles in the Hoysala architecture. The base consists of five mouldings, each of a peculiar shape. These mouldings of the base are an integral part of the Hindu temple and almost invariably exist in all styles and regional variation. Many of them are decorated, but only minimally.
In the New kind of Hoysala architecture, these five traditional mouldings are replaced with six bands of sculptured rows. They are called friezes. From top to bottom they show ''hansa'', ''makara'', stories from epics, vegetal scroll, horses and the elephants. There are a few exceptions to this like the Halebidu Hoysaleshwar temple which has eight friezes instead of six.
The Hoysala temples are mainly dedicated to either a form of Shiva or that of Vishnu. In temples with more than one shrine some individual shrines are dedicated to Surya or Lakshmi. Vaishnava ''trikutas'' always have all three shrines dedicated to a form of Vishnu, while Shaiva ''trikutas'' have one shrine dedicated to Shiva while two others to Vishnu and Surya. Images of other gods and goddesses like Surya, Brahma, Durga, Ganesha etc. are also found in the temples but entire temples are seldom dedicated to them.
While Shiva is mostly worshipped in the iconic form of a Shiva Lingam, Vishnu is always worshipped in the form of a human image. He is shown in his various ''avatars'', numbering ten. He is also showed in deep sleep on Shesha Naga, a coiled serpent as ''Shesh Shayi Vishnu''. He is also shown with his consort Lakshmi as ''Lakshmi-Narasimha'' or ''Lakshmi-Narayana''. More importantly, in the Hoysala temples, Vishnu is variously depicted as holding four major ''ayudhas'': ''shankha, chakra, gada, padma''. He wields them in four hands. Different permutations of these four ''ayudhas'' in four hands make 24 representations of Vishnu, each with a different name and attribute, as described in the table below. The list tallies to the list given in the Patala-Khanda of the ''Padma Purana'':
{| class="wikitable"
|+24 Forms of Vishnu with different combinations of Ayudhas in different hands
!
|'''NAME OF VISHNU'''
|'''UPPER RIGHT HAND'''
|'''UPPER LEFT HAND'''
|'''LOWER LEFT HAND'''
|'''LOWER RIGHT HAND'''
|-
|1.
|Keshava
|Shankha
|Chakra
|Gada
|Padma
|-
|2.
|Narayana
|Padma
|Gada
|Chakra
|Shankha
|-
|3.
|Madhava
|Chakra
|Shankha
|Padma
|Gada
|-
|4.
|Govinda
|Gada
|Padma
|Sankha
|Chakra
|-
|5.
|Vishnu
|Padma
|Sankha
|Chakra
|Gada
|-
|6.
|Madhusudana
|Sankha
|Padma
|Gada
|Chakra
|-
|7.
|Trivikrama
|Gada
|Chakra
|Sankha
|Padma
|-
|8.
|Vamana
|Chakra
|Gada
|Padma
|Sankha
|-
|9.
|Sridhara
|Chakra
|Padma
|Shankha
|Gada
|-
|10.
|Hrishikesha
|Chakra
|Gada
|Shankha
|Padma
|-
|11.
|Padmanabha
|Padma
|Sankha
|Gada
|Chakra
|-
|12.
|Damodara
|Sankha
|Gada
|Chakra
|Padma
|-
|13.
|Samkarshana
|Sankha
|Padma
|Chakra
|Gada
|-
|14.
|Vasudeva
|Chakra
|Sankha
|Gada
|Padma
|-
|15.
|Pradyumn
|Sankha
|Chakra
|Gada
|Padma
|-
|16.
|Aniruddha
|Gada
|Shankha
|Padma
|Chakra
|-
|17.
|Purushottama
|Padma
|Shankha
|Gada
|Chakra
|-
|18.
|Adhokshaja
|Gada
|Shankha
|Chakra
|Padma
|-
|19.
|Narasimha
|Padma
|Gada
|Shankha
|Chakra
|-
|20.
|Achyuta
|Padma
|Chakra
|Shankha
|Gada
|-
|21.
|Janardana
|Padma
|Chakra
|Shankha
|Gada
|-
|22.
|Upendra
|Shankha
|Gada
|Chakra
|Padma
|-
|23.
|Hari
|Shankha
|Chakra
|Padma
|Gada
|-
|24.
|Sri Krishna
|Gada
|Padma
|Chakra
|Shankha
|}These representations are found all over the Hoysala temples, including the Veera Narayan temple, Belavadi. The Chenna Keshav temple at Belur has the representations of all twenty-four forms of ''Chaturvimshati Murti'', the 24 forms of Vishnu.
They ruled the areas which roughly correspond to what is now the district of Hassan, some parts of Chikamagalur, Shivamoga, Mandya, Coorg, Chitradurga etc. They were sandwiched between the two great powers: the Chalukyas in the north and the Cholas of Thanjavur in the south. Initially they were a small kingdom straddling the mountains of the Western Ghats. In the 11<sup>th</sup> century they remained the vassals of the Chalukyas, gradually enlarging their territory.
Only in the 12<sup>th</sup> century did they rise and become powerful when Hoysala king Viraballala defeated the Chalukyas of Kalyani and put an end to the great empire. For about 200 years they reigned supreme and became what the Cholas and the Pandyas were in Tamil Nadu, and what the Chalukyas were in Karnataka. They continued to wax and wane in power until the invaders and iconoclasts of the Delhi Sultanate arrived in south India.
When the Vijayanagar Empire rose in 1329 under Harihar and Bukka, they submitted themselves willingly to the Vijaynagar Empire so that a united front against the Islamic invaders could be created in south India. In 1342, Ballala III died and the Hoysala Empire was fully incorporated in the successor empire, the Great Vijaynagar Empire.
==Hoyasala Architecture==
The Hoysalas, as mentioned, were great patrons of art. The vibrant temple tradition that was flourishing in south India in those times sustained guilds of architects, sculptors and other artisans who worked as a unit.
The kings just commissioned the project. The temples were constructed by professional and specialized guilds. These guilds easily travelled from one kingdom to another and worked for anyone who commissioned the project. That is why knowledge of architecture and sculpture was easily transferred from one dynasty to another. The art of temple building in Karnataka in what is called as the Vesara style was well developed during the time of the Chalukyas of Kalyani. The Hoysala merely continued and developed it. The major innovation during their time was the exquisite embellishing of the temple exteriors by extremely fine sculpture.
They built their beautiful temples in soapstone, variously called as potstone too. The stone is dark gray or black in color and is very soft when quarried. However, within a decade it becomes very hard on exposure to wind and rain. This peculiar quality makes it perfect for deep, miniature and exquisite sculpting. That is why the Hoysala temples are beautifully embellished with exquisite sculpture in high or low relief, or freely sculpted sculptures fitted later into the temples.
===The Hoysala Temple===
A Hoysala temple has many parts, interconnected to each other. Thus, unlike the Tamil Nadu temples, a Hoysala temple is a complete coherent whole; a connected building which does not break in continuity.[[File:Plan of a Hoysala Temple – Veera Narayana, Belavadi.jpg|thumb|371x371px|''Plan of a Hoysala Temple – Veera Narayana, Belavadi''|link=http://dharmawiki.org/index.php/File:Plan_of_a_Hoysala_Temple_%E2%80%93_Veera_Narayana,_Belavadi.jpg]]The simplest form of Hoysala building consists of just the shrine of the primary deity and a ''mandapam'' attached to it, which can either be closed or open. In some bigger temples both open and closed halls are to be found. As discussed above, the ''sanctum'' is for the deity and the ''mandapam'' is for the devotees to gather and have ''darshan''. In most temples, between the ''mandapam'' and the ''garbha-griha'', there is ''antarala'', or the vestibule. In some bigger temples there are entrance porches, or ''mukha mandapams'' before the ''mandapams'' at the entrance of the temple. Thus there are five primary constituent parts of a Hoysala temple:
#''garbha-griha''
#''antarala''
#''mandapam'' (closed)
#''mandapam'' (open)
#''mukha mandapam'' (porch)
The ''vimana'' of the Hoysala temple is extremely articulated, artistic and complex in nature and is what attracts the tourists most of all. Gerard Foekema explains:[[File:Plans of the Hoysala Vimana - a-b) Full Star c-d) Half Star e-f) Staggered Square.png|thumb|''Plans of the Hoysala Vimana - a-b) Full Star c-d) Half Star e-f) Staggered Square''|link=http://dharmawiki.org/index.php/File:Plans_of_the_Hoysala_Vimana_-_a-b)_Full_Star_c-d)_Half_Star_e-f)_Staggered_Square.png]]<blockquote>''“Its inside forms a strong contrast to its outside: the inside is simply square in plan with plain walls, hence the name cella, the outside is complicated in plan and is profusely decorated. The outside plan is a star, a staggered square or a combination of star and square, and consequently the walls show many projections and recesses.”<ref>Foekema, Gerard. ''A Complete Guide to Hoysala Temples''. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1996. p. 21.</ref>''</blockquote>The ''antarala'' too is plain from the inside and has just the space for the priest to officiate between the devotee and the deity. Its walls are plain or barely decorated from the inside. The mandapams are divided into bays. Their ceilings are decorted with ''padma'' motifs, oral patterns and other decorative motifs. On the outside the walls are profusely decorated, but their decoration is integrated with that of the outer walls of the ''garbha-griha'' and is inconspicuous. It also has a roof in the form of a nose like structure protruding from the ''vimanas''. It is called ''shukanasika''.
In most Hoysala temples, the closed ''mandapam'' has either no windows, or perforated windows which let in some light. It has thick walls. It is a large hall and hence there are four pillars to support the roof. Both outside and inside of the ''mandapam'' are decorated. The pillars are the famous lathe-turned and the ceilings of the bays of the ''mandapam'' are exquisitely decorated. It is large but smaller than the open ''mandapam''.
The open ''mandapam'' has an intricate plan. It is a staggered square of many sizes and variations. The number of pillars and bays vary here and the open ''mandapam'' of Veera Narayan temple Belavadi has one of the largest open ''mandapams'' of any Hoysala temple.[[File:Plans of the Maha Mandapam.png|thumb|115x115px|''Plans of the Maha Mandapam''|link=http://dharmawiki.org/index.php/File:Plans_of_the_Maha_Mandapam.png]]As it is open it has only parapet walls on which many pillars rest. The inside of the parapet has ''kakshasana'' (seating bench). The ''mukha mandapam'' is very small, just an opening with a roof and two pillars supporting it.
===Hoysala Sculpture===
[[File:Hoysala sculpture at Somnathapur, Mysore, Karnataka.png|thumb|''Hoysala sculpture at Somnathapur, Mysore, Karnataka''|link=http://dharmawiki.org/index.php/File:Hoysala_sculpture_at_Somnathapur,_Mysore,_Karnataka.png]]In the Hindu temple, sculpture is inextricably enmeshed with architecture to the point where the boundary between them becomes unrecognizable. This is another feature which distinguishes the Hindu temple from other sacred architectures in the world. In the Hoysala architecture this feature becomes even more exaggerated. As Gerard Foekema says, in Karnataka, mainly in Kalyani Chalukya and Hoysala temples, architecture is decorated with architecture. These architectural parts are both functional and decorative. Since most of these parts are constructed by chiseling hence they are technically sculpture but play the function of architecture as well.
Beginning from the top, the Hoysala temple has the quintessential ''kalasha'', containing the temple seed. It was built in stone, but in most temples it was lost during Islamic invasions, but some like temples at Mosale have their ''kalasha'' intact. The Veera Narayana temple, Belavadi also has the ''kalashas'' intact in all three of its shrines. The temples that have lost their ''kalasha'' have replaced it with a metal one.
Below the ''kalasha'' there is the domed roof, which is actually a sculpted stone and given the shape of the roof. It is square if the plan of the ''garbha-griha'' and ''shikhara'' is square and star if the plan is that of a star. “Below this giant topping roof, the tower consists of many more domed roofs with square plan, all of them much smaller, and also crowned by ''kalasas''. They are mixed with other small roofs of different shapes, most of them finely decorated. The top of the wall of a closed hall also shows this kind of decorated miniature roofs, but only one single row of them, and also above the heavy eaves of open halls and porches one row of them can be found. The tower of the shrine mostly consists of three or four of this kind of rows, the top of the nose mostly of two or three of them.”<ref>Ibid. p. 28.</ref>[[File:Hoysala Sculpture, Aralaguppe, Tumkuru, Karnataka.png|thumb|''Hoysala Sculpture, Aralaguppe, Tumkuru, Karnataka''|link=http://dharmawiki.org/index.php/File:Hoysala_Sculpture,_Aralaguppe,_Tumkuru,_Karnataka.png]]The Vesara style has evolved basically from the south Indian Dravida style with some Nagara embellishment. Hence, essentially it is a Dravida style which later evolved into a separate branch. This is why the Dravida feature of the ''vimana'' having many ''talas'' are also present in the Vesara styles. The rows of decorated miniature roofs that Foekema talks about in the above excerpt are actually these ''talas'' which are so decorated and so deeply enmeshed into each other that they look like a single structure.
Below the ''vimana'' there is the hanging eave which is often half a metre long and is very heavy. It provides the shade to the sculpture on the walls. Below this eave two different architectural idioms are usually found. They are called the Old Hoysala type and the New Hoysala type. The Old Hoysala is very similar to the Chalukya style. The New Hoysala style features many innovations and it is this style which gave the Hoysala temples their characteristic touch. Foekema explains the differences between the two types:<blockquote>''“In the Old kind of temples, the wall-images are placed below the decorative towers, and below the wall-images the base of the wall consists of a set of 5 different horizontal mouldings, one of them a row of blocks. In the New kind of temples there is a second eave running around the temple, about one meter below the first one; the decorative towers are placed between the two eaves, and the wall-images below the lower one. The base of the wall consists of a set of 6 equal rectangular mouldings, each of them of the same width.”''<ref>Ibid.</ref></blockquote>The wall images that form a continuous row all around the walls of the ''garbha-griha'' and ''antarala'' are one of the most beautiful features of the Hoysala temple. They are exquisitely sculpted and are often capped by an overhanging tree or a creeper. The images on the ''rathas'', or the projections, are of major deities, often the different forms of the primary deity in the shrine. This image is flanked by ''chanvara'' bearers or attendants. Lesser divinities occupy other less important projections.
Below this is the temple base. It is the temple base and the second eave which differentiate the Old and the New styles in the Hoysala architecture. The base consists of five mouldings, each of a peculiar shape. These mouldings of the base are an integral part of the Hindu temple and almost invariably exist in all styles and regional variation. Many of them are decorated, but only minimally.
In the New kind of Hoysala architecture, these five traditional mouldings are replaced with six bands of sculptured rows. They are called friezes. From top to bottom they show ''hansa'', ''makara'', stories from epics, vegetal scroll, horses and the elephants. There are a few exceptions to this like the Halebidu Hoysaleshwar temple which has eight friezes instead of six.
The Hoysala temples are mainly dedicated to either a form of Shiva or that of Vishnu. In temples with more than one shrine some individual shrines are dedicated to Surya or Lakshmi. Vaishnava ''trikutas'' always have all three shrines dedicated to a form of Vishnu, while Shaiva ''trikutas'' have one shrine dedicated to Shiva while two others to Vishnu and Surya. Images of other gods and goddesses like Surya, Brahma, Durga, Ganesha etc. are also found in the temples but entire temples are seldom dedicated to them.
While Shiva is mostly worshipped in the iconic form of a Shiva Lingam, Vishnu is always worshipped in the form of a human image. He is shown in his various ''avatars'', numbering ten. He is also showed in deep sleep on Shesha Naga, a coiled serpent as ''Shesh Shayi Vishnu''. He is also shown with his consort Lakshmi as ''Lakshmi-Narasimha'' or ''Lakshmi-Narayana''. More importantly, in the Hoysala temples, Vishnu is variously depicted as holding four major ''ayudhas'': ''shankha, chakra, gada, padma''. He wields them in four hands. Different permutations of these four ''ayudhas'' in four hands make 24 representations of Vishnu, each with a different name and attribute, as described in the table below. The list tallies to the list given in the Patala-Khanda of the ''Padma Purana'':
{| class="wikitable"
|+24 Forms of Vishnu with different combinations of Ayudhas in different hands
!
|'''NAME OF VISHNU'''
|'''UPPER RIGHT HAND'''
|'''UPPER LEFT HAND'''
|'''LOWER LEFT HAND'''
|'''LOWER RIGHT HAND'''
|-
|1.
|Keshava
|Shankha
|Chakra
|Gada
|Padma
|-
|2.
|Narayana
|Padma
|Gada
|Chakra
|Shankha
|-
|3.
|Madhava
|Chakra
|Shankha
|Padma
|Gada
|-
|4.
|Govinda
|Gada
|Padma
|Sankha
|Chakra
|-
|5.
|Vishnu
|Padma
|Sankha
|Chakra
|Gada
|-
|6.
|Madhusudana
|Sankha
|Padma
|Gada
|Chakra
|-
|7.
|Trivikrama
|Gada
|Chakra
|Sankha
|Padma
|-
|8.
|Vamana
|Chakra
|Gada
|Padma
|Sankha
|-
|9.
|Sridhara
|Chakra
|Padma
|Shankha
|Gada
|-
|10.
|Hrishikesha
|Chakra
|Gada
|Shankha
|Padma
|-
|11.
|Padmanabha
|Padma
|Sankha
|Gada
|Chakra
|-
|12.
|Damodara
|Sankha
|Gada
|Chakra
|Padma
|-
|13.
|Samkarshana
|Sankha
|Padma
|Chakra
|Gada
|-
|14.
|Vasudeva
|Chakra
|Sankha
|Gada
|Padma
|-
|15.
|Pradyumn
|Sankha
|Chakra
|Gada
|Padma
|-
|16.
|Aniruddha
|Gada
|Shankha
|Padma
|Chakra
|-
|17.
|Purushottama
|Padma
|Shankha
|Gada
|Chakra
|-
|18.
|Adhokshaja
|Gada
|Shankha
|Chakra
|Padma
|-
|19.
|Narasimha
|Padma
|Gada
|Shankha
|Chakra
|-
|20.
|Achyuta
|Padma
|Chakra
|Shankha
|Gada
|-
|21.
|Janardana
|Padma
|Chakra
|Shankha
|Gada
|-
|22.
|Upendra
|Shankha
|Gada
|Chakra
|Padma
|-
|23.
|Hari
|Shankha
|Chakra
|Padma
|Gada
|-
|24.
|Sri Krishna
|Gada
|Padma
|Chakra
|Shankha
|}These representations are found all over the Hoysala temples, including the Veera Narayan temple, Belavadi. The Chenna Keshav temple at Belur has the representations of all twenty-four forms of ''Chaturvimshati Murti'', the 24 forms of Vishnu.