UNESCO Made the Hoysala Temples at Belur, Halebidu and Somanathapura India's 42nd World Heritage Site on 18 September 2023, Citing Sculpture That Covers the Entire Exterior Surface

On 18 September 2023, at its extended 45th session in Riyadh, the World Heritage Committee inscribed the Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas on the World Heritage List, according to UNESCO’s own announcement of that date. It made the property India’s 42nd site. The decision names three temples in Karnataka, the Chennakeshava at Belur, the Hoysalesvara at Halebidu and the Keshava at Somanathapura, and inscribes them on criteria (i), (ii) and (iv).

Spellings vary between pages. UNESCO writes Belur, Halebidu and Somanathapura, which this article follows. Beluru and Halebeedu are Karnataka Tourism’s forms, and Britannica writes Halebid and Somnathpur.

What the Committee wrote

The decision text, number 45 COM 8B.38, treats the three temples as the best representatives of Hoysala sacred architecture of the 12th and 13th centuries. Under criterion (i), the Committee says they testify to the creative genius of the Hoysala architects and artists, and it calls their command of stone carving “a skill that remains matchless”. Under criterion (ii), it says the Hoysalas made considered choices from temple traditions elsewhere, modified them and added their own innovations. Under criterion (iv), it describes the temples as showing a significant stage in the historical development of Hindu temple architecture.

The route to the list is dated by the Press Information Bureau. The temples went on India’s tentative list on 15 April 2014, and the nomination dossier reached UNESCO on 31 January 2022. The 2023 release says a 21-nation Committee took the decision, and it quotes the culture minister placing India sixth on the list.

UNESCO gives the whole property as 10.47 hectares, with a buffer zone of 195.87 hectares. Its maps page splits that into 1.59 hectares at Belur, 7 at Halebidu and 1.88 at Somanathapura.

The dynasty behind them

Britannica dates the Hoysala dynasty from about 1006 to about 1346 CE, ruling in the southern Deccan. Its first kings came from the hills near Dorasamudra, which is present-day Halebid. Vishnuvardhana, who reigned from about 1110 to 1141, expelled the Cholas from the plateau, and his grandson Ballala II (reigned 1173 to 1220) made the Hoysalas the dominant power in southern India, Britannica says. The Vijayanagara dynasty took over from them. That empire’s story is in our piece on Krishnadevaraya and the golden age of Vijayanagara, and the state where all of this sits is profiled in Karnataka at a glance.

Three temples, three dates

At Belur, UNESCO records unbroken worship, rituals and festivals since the temple’s start in 1117 CE. Karnataka Tourism says King Vishnuvardhana built it, also called the Vijayanarayana temple, to mark his victory over the Cholas in 1116, and that it is believed to have taken about 103 years to complete. According to the same page, tradition names the master craftsmen Dasoja and Chavana, father and son. UNESCO adds that the tower over the sanctum was taken down in the late 19th century and never rebuilt, and that the temple is still a place of worship.

At Halebidu, Britannica dates the main temple, the Hoysaleshvara, to about 1121. Karnataka Tourism describes a Shiva temple with twin sanctums, Hoysaleswara and Shantaleswara, named after the king and his queen. UNESCO says no tower exists there and that it found no clear evidence of one in any collection of inscriptions. Worship has long stopped, and only symbolic worship is allowed. Britannica records that Halebid, once the Hoysala capital, was sacked in 1311 and again in 1326.

At Somanathapura, Britannica gives 1268, and Karnataka Tourism names the builder as Somanatha Dandanayaka, a commander under King Narasimha III. Incredible India gives the same year and calls him Soma. It is a three-shrine temple, with separate shrines to Keshava, Venugopala and Janardhana, according to Incredible India. UNESCO calls it the most complete example, with a tower over each of the three sanctums. The Committee’s text adds that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) took apart and rebuilt the enclosure wall around the main temple in the last decade, and that the temple itself was not touched by that work.

From 1117 to 1268 is 151 years, close to the “one hundred and fifty years of building activity” that the Committee’s integrity statement describes.

What the walls are made of

UNESCO’s text says all three are built of chloritic schist. Karnataka Tourism uses the name soapstone for the same material. Britannica explains why it suited the work: the stone is soft when quarried and hardens on exposure to air. In the Committee’s words, the “extravagant ornamentation” became possible because the Hoysalas fully explored the qualities of that fine-grained, relatively soft mineral. Carvings are in high relief with deep undercutting, the text continues, and the artists detailed each bead, fingernail and leaf blade.

A star for a floor plan

The Committee lists the features that define the Hoysala style: a star-shaped (stellate) sanctum, a walkway around it that follows the same outline, a multi-tiered frieze, a gallery of sculpture along that walkway, and carving over the whole outer surface. The text traces the multi-pointed plan to the Karnata Dravida and Bhumija traditions and says it produced walls indented in a rhythm not seen before. Four sources fed the builders’ choices: the Nagara tradition of the north, the Dravida of the south, the Bhumija of central India and the Karnata Dravida of the Kalyani Chalukyas.

At Belur, Karnataka Tourism describes the sanctum as stellar in shape, and says its zigzag walls make the 24 forms of Vishnu look different through the day as light and shade shift. Its Hoysaleswara page adds a star-shaped platform and signature lathe-turned pillars, meaning pillars shaped on a turning machine. Britannica notes lathe-turned interior pillars at Halebid too, in a variety of shapes. The Committee’s text also describes interior pillars that are highly polished and cut in a great many profiles.

According to the decision text, the Hoysala idea of an unfolding story along the walking path was carried forward in some 15th-century temples at Hampi. Our Hampi traveller’s guide covers what to see there.

What is carved on the walls

The Committee’s text describes a frieze along the base, with elephants, horses, crocodiles, plants, people and birds, wound around the whole temple. Above it run life-sized or larger images of gods, goddesses, musicians, dancers and ascetics. Stories from the Hindu epics and puranas are laid out in sequence along the walls, so that a devotee walking the circumambulation path reads them in order. At Halebidu, Karnataka Tourism names the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and adds the Bhagavata Purana at Somanathapura.

The decision text also names the Sala legend, a sculpture of Sala killing a tiger, as the quintessence of the temples. Britannica’s dynasty entry captions a photograph of the scene at the Belur temple.

Karnataka Tourism counts 42 Madanikas at Belur, the bracket figures of celestial maidens, and calls each one distinct. Its temple page adds that even water drops are chiselled on them, and says it is believed queen Shantala Devi was the model for one figure, the lady with the mirror. On the interior brackets, the Committee’s text calls the dancers and musicians sensual and dynamic in their rendering.

The artists signed their work. The Committee counts hundreds of signatures across Hoysala temples, some only names or initials, and others carrying the sculptor’s lineage and titles. That practice was unusual in the precolonial Indian subcontinent, the Committee says, and it points to the artists’ standing in Hoysala society.

Who looks after the temples

The Committee’s text says the ASI, an attached office of the Ministry of Culture, protects and manages all three components. The ASI’s list of centrally protected monuments carries them under its Bangalore Circle, with Belur’s temple entered as “Kesava Temple and Inscriptions”. The legal cover is the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, as amended in 2010. Around each monument is a prohibited area of 100 metres and a regulated area of 200 metres beyond that. The Press Information Bureau’s 2022 release says the state government looks after state-protected monuments around the three temples, and that a district master plan will cover their buffer zones. Religious activity at Belur is run by the Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Department.

Visiting

The Belur temple’s hours, per Karnataka Tourism, are 7.30 am to 7.30 pm daily. For Somanathapura, the two Incredible India pages disagree: one lists 9 am to 5.30 pm and the other 7 am to 9 pm, so confirm on the day. We found no official page giving Halebidu’s hours, or an entry fee for any of the three temples.

Belur is 220 km from Bengaluru by Karnataka Tourism’s figure. Hassan junction is the nearest station, at 40 km on the temple page and 34 km on the destination page. The board gives the Belur to Halebidu distance as 20 km on one page and 16 km on another. Somanathapura is about 35 km from Mysuru, and Incredible India names Mysuru Junction as the nearest station. For Somanathapura the board suggests a half day. Its Belur and Halebidu pages advise October to March and a guide for the carvings, and the Halebidu page says photography restrictions may apply inside sanctuaries.

What the Committee asked for next

The decision recommends monitoring the effect of rising air pollution on the sculptures, involving the community in conservation, improving the historical remains and views in Belur’s buffer zone, and preparing an interpretation plan with visitor amenities. It asked India to report on these by 1 December 2024, for review at the Committee’s 47th session.