A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c8.102

c8.102

The style, whatever name be bestowed upon it, is characterized by a richly carved base or plinth, supporting the temple, which is polygonal, star-shaped in plan, and roofed by a low pyramidal tower, surmounted by a vase-like ornament. The temple of Vishnu in the village of Nuggēhalli, in the Tiplūr Taluk, Mysore, as shown in Plate X, from an unpublished photograph, gives a good notion of this extraordinarily ornate style. The stellate plan appears clearly in the view of the Somnāthpur temple (Fig. 14). The Belūr temple is known to have been erected in A.D. 1117 by a Hoysala king named Bettiga, converted from Jainism to faith in Vishnu. The more magnificent temples at Halebīd, the Hoysalesvara and Kedāresvara, are somewhat later in date, and necessarily must have been under construction for many years.