The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c28.s1.3

c28.s1.3

This animated group seems to be the representation of a scene taken from the following legend told in connection with an early chief of the Hoysaḷa family of Dvārasamudra in Maisur. It is thus related in one of the old inscriptions at Gadag¹: “For when, in the city of Śaśakapura, with the words ‘Slay O Sala,’ he was commanded by a certain ascetic to destroy a tiger that had come to devour him in the performance of his religious rites, he slew it and acquired the name of Hoysaḷa. From that time forth the name Hoysaḷa was attached to his race, and the emblem on its banner, causing fear to its foes, was a tiger.”