There is a popular myth about the Hoysala dynasty, a story so deeply entrenched in folklore that it inspired the emblem of this medieval South Indian empire.
This is how the story goes: the person believed to have founded the Hoysala dynasty, Sala, was travelling with his guru, Sudatta, through a forest when they encountered a tiger. Sudatta is believed to have shouted, “Hoy (which means strike in Halegannada), Sala,” which Sala promptly did, killing the tiger. Later, when he founded his kingdom, he remembered the cry of his teacher and named this kingdom after it.
Meera Iyer | Photo Credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN
“You would have seen this story portrayed in many temples,” says Meera Iyer, the convener of the Bengaluru chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), at a recent event at The Bangalore Room, Indiranagar. Since the Chola Dynasty’s flag bore the image of a leaping tiger, the story could also be a metaphor for the Hoysala victory over them in 1116 CE at Talakadu.
As Iyer also points out in the talk titled How Belur and Halebid Won the World HeritageTag, this story gained popularity only around the time of the Hoysala king, Vishnuvardhana, who ruled the region between 1108 and 1152 CE.
Over an hour-long lecture, peppered with delightful little nuggets of information such as this one, she offered many insights into the legacy of this ancient kingdom. She also spoke about how the Hoysala temples at Belur, Halebid, and Somanathapur became UNESCO World Heritage Sites in September last year. “This was a really exciting moment for all of us,” admits Iyer, who was part of the team that worked on the nomination dossier for submission to UNESCO
The outer wall panel of the 13th-century Lakshminarayana temple at Hosaholalu near K.R. Pet has been embellished with sculptures and carvings with the stamp of Hoysala workmanship. | Photo Credit: R_KRISHNA KUMAR
Who were the Hoysalas?
The Hoysala Kingdom was a Kannada-speaking empire that mushroomed across Karnataka between the 11th and the 14th century. While the early history of the Hoysalas is not well-documented, they are believed to have come from the Malnad region of the Western Ghats.
The Hoysalas were initially the vassals of the Kalyani Chalukyas, eventually breaking away from them and emerging as an independent state by the 12th century. Iyer lists the names of some of its best-known rulers, Nripa Kama II, Vishnuvardhana, Veera Ballala II, and Veera Ballala III, and mentions a significant event that took place in the time of Vishnuvardhana: the coming of the philosopher-saint Ramanuja to Hoysala territory. “He was known for propagating Sri Vaishnavism, a form of Vaishnavism,” says Iyer of Ramanuja, who is believed to have fled from the Chola society that he was born in to escape the wrath of a king who was a staunch Shaivite.
Vishnuvardhana is believed to have a sick daughter, and though he had taken her to many physicians, it was Ramanuja who cured her. “(It is said that) he was influenced by this and converted to Sri Vaishnavism (from Jainism),” says Iyer. “Whether he did or not is a bit debatable, but you do see a strong influence of Ramanuja in Hoysala society.”
While Vishnuvardhana had always sought to create an independent empire, he did not completely succeed. “That didn’t happen till the time of his grandson, Veera Ballala II (1173–1220),” says Iyer. Over the next century or so, the Hoysalas continued to expand their empire, even venturing into modern-day Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, before the last great king of the dynasty, Veera Ballala III, was captured during the Battle of Kannanur and subsequently put to death in 1342.
A view of Hoysala architecture wall sculpture at Arsikere temple. | Photo Credit: HANDOUT E MAIL
A lasting legacy
One of the most profound contributions of the Hoysala Dynasty is the vast number of stunning temples built across their kingdom, both large and small, offering a glimpse into the period’s rich architectural tradition. “There are believed to have been several hundred temples,” says Iyer. Even today there are over a hundred remaining in various stages of preservation. “Some of them are protected by the Archaeological Survey of India, some by the Karnataka State and some of them are unprotected,” says Iyer.
She also explains what makes these temples special. The obvious reason is that they are aesthetically very appealing, with their diverse plans (especially the iconic stellate one), detailed architecture and ornate walls and pillars. “You can’t see the walls in a sense because the entire wall is a canvas,” she says, adding that interestingly, the temples were built by all kinds of people, not just royalty. Also, “there was this idea of syncretism,” she says, as evidenced by the fact that the same town would often contain Vishnu, Shiva and Jain temples.
Another fascinating fact is the idea of artistic agency, with many sculptures inscribed with the names or initials of the people who created them, sometimes even their family trees and origins. “We have the names of almost 200 artisans. This is quite phenomenal,” says Iyer. She also goes into the architectural eclecticism of the Hoysala temples, the idea that--like all creative things--they did not come up in a vacuum, and drew from many other architectural styles.
For instance, the shikhara that was once part of the Channakeshava Temple in Belur (it was taken down in the 1800s) closely resembles the Bhumija shikhara often seen in the Malwa region of central India while influences of Western or Kalyani Chalukya architecture can be discerned in many of the Hoysala temples, too. While the Chalukyas before them had also been making ornate, beautiful structures out of schist or soapstone, “the Hoysalas took some of these designs from the Chalukyas and extrapolated it to a different scale altogether,” she says.
The temple of Rameshvara is a non-ornate variety of Hoysala architecture with Vesara vimana. | Photo Credit: MURALI KUMAR K
Becoming a World Heritage Site
According to the UNESCO website, as of January 2024, there are around 1,199 World Heritage Sites, 42 of which are in India. “This is the term that follows from a convention that happened in 1972. And from the 1980s, UNESCO started awarding certain sites this term,” says Iyer. While Karnataka’s Hampi and Pattadakal made it to the list back then, the Hoysala temples were not considered for a long time. “We had this entire list of World Heritage sites but not a single Hoysala monument. That was always a shock for anyone who has seen them,” she says.
So, what exactly is a World Heritage Site? “Sites determined to be important not just for the city or the country but for all of humanity,” says Iyer. For a site to be considered, it needs to have ‘Outstanding Universal Value’. “The whole nomination hinges on this, in fact,” she adds.
UNESCO states that the site in question needs to meet one or more of 10 criteria, which include representing a masterpiece of human creative genius, exhibiting an important interchange of human values, bearing exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition and illustrating a significant stage in human history, among other things. Additionally, it needs to meet conditions of integrity and authenticity and have an adequate system of protection and management to safeguard its future.
13th century Keshava temple at Somanathpur near Mysuru was built by the Hoysalas. It is nominated for inscription as a World Heritage Site along with temples at Belur and Halebidu. | Photo Credit: SRIRAM MA
How shortlisting works
At the talk, Iyer also went into the application process and how the INTACH team shortlisted the temples: the Chennakeshava Temple in Belur, the Hoysaleswara Temple in Halebid and the Keshava Temple in Somanathapura. They worked with a huge team of experts, including historians, art historians, architects, geologists, dancers and sculptors, “to understand how these cultures were made,” she states. “There were a lot of visits, documentation of the temples and speaking with several people.”
Finally, in September last year, nearly a decade after the government put the Hoysala Temples on the tentative list in 2014, ‘The Sacred Ensembles of Hoysalas’ became the 42nd UNESCO World Heritage Site in India “This is the culmination of an extremely long journey,” says Iyer.
