Veera Narayana Temple in Belavadi

It seems that fortunes are not only applicable to the humans but also for the Gods. May be due to the fact that this place does not come in Hassan district, only negligible tourists coming to visit Halebidu and Belur temples include this temple in their list, even though it is just 10 km away from this circuit. Built by King Veera Ballala II of the Hoysala empire in 1200 CE using the very familiar Hoysala’s core component ‘soapstone’, this Veera Narayana Swamy temple is dedicated to Lord Vishnu. Unlike Halebidu and Belur temples, this temple’s multi-tiered towers remain intact, owing to the fact that this temple was not attacked by Muslim rulers.

It gives a chance to the visitors to get to know how the Hoysala style towers of the temples would be. Two stone elephants with broken tusks, legs bent with the strain at the entrance, seem to be pulling the entire structure of the temple. A pillared hall then opens into a courtyard housing the beautifully sculpted temple with its shape accentuated by a colourful hedge at its periphery. With a traditional flag post, glossy black ornamented pillars line the main hall leading to the trikuta (three towers) layout. The pillars are round, huge and hard to give a complete hug to some of them. The ceilings are exquisitely carved, some have geometric patterns and others have figures of Gods.

The temple is actually dedicated to three forms of Lord Vishnu, Lord Veeranarayana in the centre facing East, Lord Venugopala facing North and Lord Yoganarasimha facing South. The hall looks very beautiful with the two rows of pillars with a stone bench running all round the edge of the hall. They are ornamented with rosettes and plasters. There is one eave running around the temple where the superstructure meets the wall of the shrine and below this are decorative towers on pilasters, a touch of Hoysala architecture. Fortunes can turn over, if you explore more about this temple after reading this!