Somnathpur Temple

You can read about how we reached Somnathpur here. 

After 2 hours from Bangalore, the journey across greenish landscape took us to Somnathpura. For a structure maintained by Archeological Survey of India, I was surprised that it was maintained very well. Entry cost is INR 5 for Indians and INR 200 for foreign nationals.

A brief history into the Temple - This temple was constructed by Somnatha, an officer under the rule of Hoysala Kind Narasimha III (1254 A.D - 1291 A.D.). It follows three celled structure (Trikutachala) consisting of three Garbagrahas with images of Keshava, Venugopala and Janardhana, three Antaralas and a Navarang. Mallithamma, Masanathamma, Chameya, Bhameya are few sculptors whose names have been carved on the images with Mallithamma carving majority of the sculptures.

The porch with spectacular view of the temple

The shrine is a typical example of one of the finest Hoysala architectures. I always liked the name Hoysalas in history books when I was in school (maybe the name was fancy!!) but now I was simple awestruck at their craftmanship.

One side of the temple

The beauty of the sculptures, the relief inside the temple, the beautiful carvings on the roof are magnificent.

It was as if they couldn’t leave any stone without a pattern. The entire structure was beautifully filled with carvings.

The inside of the temple was dark and cool. There were four to five pillars supporting the temple and each pillar had its own unique design.

Interior of the temple

One was plain and smoothly polished, the other had circular cuts across its length and one was carved with designs.

The main deity is Chennakeshava (chenna means beautiful, keshava – a name for Krishna) and the deities were inside grilled doors. After so many clicks, we came outside.

Chennakeshava

A view of exterior wall of Somnathpur Temple

The exterior wall has a plethora of Gods and Goddesses and numerous friezes. One such beautifully sculpted Frieze containing elephants and horses

One must have enough patience and interest in history to observe these bands of sculptures. I felt the sculptures were trying to tell some story, only that I couldn’t comprehend what it was.

Probably it was about a success battle story of Hoysala king or a mythological one. I wish I had taken a guide along to understand about it. I was amazed at how the kings were able to build such magnificent structures on wide-open spaces with perfect symmetry, artistic beauty (around the year 1200 A.D.) without so much advancement as in current-day science. It still amazes me :)

After admiring the exterior wall, we moved to the Colonnade of pillars around the temple. They are made of some light yellow colored stones; probably sand stones (not sure though). The pillars are laid out in perfect symmetry and ASI has done a good job of restoring few of the pillars.

Colonnade of pillars around the temple

By now, we had gone several rounds around the temple and numerous clicks were taken. But, I was still reluctant to leave the place. Since we had Talacaud as next place in our list, we bid farewell to Somnathpur taking in one final view of the Somnathpur Temple

Somnathpur Temple

You can continue reading about Talacad trip and photos of Talacad here