Halebid

Village in the southern Indian state of
Karnataka, about sixty miles northwest
of the city of Mysore. As at its sister city,
Belur, Halebid is known for a magnificent collection of temples from
the Hoysala dynasty, who ruled
western Karnataka from the eleventh
to thirteenth centuries C.E. The
most notable site at Halebid is the
magnificent Hoysaleshvar Temple,
269
Halebid
dedicated to Shiva in his form as Lord
of the Hoysalas.
At both Belur and Halebid, the temples were built from a particular type of
stone—variously described as chlorite
schist, steatite, or soapstone—that is
quite soft when newly quarried, but
gradually hardens with exposure to air.
This initial malleability makes the stone
easy to carve, and resulted in the lush
detail characteristic of Hoysala temples.
Architecturally speaking, Hoysala
temples have certain unique features:
a central hall connecting three starshaped sanctuaries, and temple towers
(shikharas) composed of well-defined
horizontal tiers, rather than the
continuous upward sweep characteristic of the northern Indian Nagara architectural style.