Hoysaleshwara, where the language of stone surpasses the language of man

[Vehl]

Hoysaleswara temple is a temple dedicated to Hindu God Shiva. It was built in Halebidu (in modern Karnataka state) during the Hoysala Empire rule in the 12th century by King Vishnuvardhana. The construction was completed in 1121 CE. During the early 14th century, Halebidu was sacked and looted by Muslim invaders from northern India and the temple fell into a state of ruin and neglect.

The Hoysaleswara Temple, dating back to the 12th century, is astounding for its wealth of sculptural details. The walls of the temple are covered with endless variety of depictions from Hindu mythology, animals, birds and Shilabalikas, or dancing figures. Yet no two sculptures are the same. This magnificent temple was never fully completed, despite 86 years of labour, after Halebid was sacked by the Delhi Sultanate. This star-shaped temple is actually a pair of two identical temples with separate sanctuaries (altars) and mandapams (halls) next to each other. One of the temples has active worship and the other does not. The temple has recently been proposed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Each one of these statues were carved out of individual blocks of granite.None of them were made by assembling stones. The skill and effort went into creating these masterpieces are amazing...even a single slip of a chisel could ruin an entire statue..wasting maybe years of work.



^^ The attention given to even the minute of details in these statues is evident in the above photos.



^^ The image on the left is that of Mohini, a Celestial nymph who is supposed to be the personification of the Indian ideal of beauty.
The image on the right is that of the Queen Nandhi ( Queen of cows) which are usually found on the entrance of southern Indian temples (Dravidian style temple architecture).



^^ There is no empty space in the temple without some form of decoration...even the outer walls are densely decorated with intricate stone carvings.

Temples like these are so common in southern India that people almost take them for granted. I only started truly appreciating them when I was not able to frequent them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoysaleswara_Temple

[geckosfeet]

1. Wow. Truly beautiful architecture. Puts contemporary western architecture

to shame.

[Vehl]

8. thank you

India has two main styles of Architecture.

The northern Indian one is known as the Nagara style



The southern Indian one is known as the Dravidian style



The southern style was the precursor to most of the South East Asian Hindu/Buddhist temples..like the Angkor Wat.

[Newest Reality]

2. If you look at the current, 3D depictions of how

amazingly complex and intricate the function of our cells are, then perhaps, it is not so hard to imagine that this complexity expresses itself in the amazing and ornate sculpture and artwork that ensues from the organic into the realms of human expression.

When we look at the Fibonacci numbers, we also see a very interesting and awesome mathematical relationship that appears to link our conceptual understanding with the direct expression and manifestation of life. Some think of this as an exposure of the unity of life.

When I watch this, (and the related videos) it is very easy for me to correlate the historical and current actions of our species with what is going on manifold, underneath our skin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mszlckmc4Hw&feature=player_embedded

[Vehl]

7. Yep

I too have seen a profusion of Fibonacci-ish designs in many ancient buildings...maybe they who built them wanted to point out the interconnection between all things in this universe.

the same way how the Fibonacci numbers appear in nature..such s pine cones.

[AsahinaKimi]

3. Sugoiiii!!

Wonderful, thanks for posting, its very interesting!

[Vehl]

6. Arigatou

[WolverineDG]

4. That should be a World Heritage Site

what's the hold-up?

dg

[Vehl]

5. I dunno

There are quite a number of places like these in that region..maybe UNESCO didn't want to have multiple world heritage sites in proximity.

[Deep13]

9. Very impressive. I love stone work.

Of course, in this case "the language of stone" is part of "the language of man" since people carved it.

[Vehl]

10. Yep

You are correct. I should have said the language of man in the vocal sense :)