Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c12: V. Art
Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c12
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V. Art
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WORKS of art are chiefly exemplified in engraving, sculpture, and architecture. The specimens of engraving are those to be found in inscriptions. The finest examples are the Kadamba inscription on the Tālgunda pillar, and the Ganga and Hoysala inscriptions on stone slabs and copper plates. Most of the Hoysala inscriptions, in particular, are beautifully incised on polished slabs of black hornblende, and the contents are so skilfully engrossed that no space is left where a single additional character could be introduced. Ornamental flourishes and elegant fancy letters are used where suitable, and the whole presents an attractive appearance. Under the Chālukyas in 1067 is mentioned (Cd 47) an artistic engraver (*rūvāri*) who could entwine the forms of elephants, lions, parrots, and other animals so as to make them appear from the letters. In 1159, under the Hoysalas, is mentioned (Ak 141) a sculptor who within the space of a single page (of a *ōle* or palmyra leaf) wrote the whole of the *Gō-grahana* in the highest style so as to please every one.
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Sculpture and carving in stone attained to an elaboration perfectly marvellous. The colossal Jain image of Gomaṭa on a hill at Śravaṇa-Beḷgoḷa, erected in about 983 during the Ganga period, is one of the most remarkable monuments in India. It is a monolith, nude, and stands 57½ feet high,¹ with no support above the thighs. “Nothing grander or more imposing exists out of Egypt,” says Fergusson, the great authority on architecture.
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¹ The sculptor has engraved his scale at the foot of the statue, and, curiously enough, it corresponds with the French metre. The use of this in the tenth century would form an interesting subject for inquiry.
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The Hoysala crest of Sala stabbing the tiger, set up in front of the *vimāna* of temples erected by them, is a fine example of free standing sculpture. There is also some in the ruined Jain temples at Angadi. But the most intricate and astonishing carving is that employed in the decoration of the outer walls of the Hoysala temples, and in the ceilings of the small domes or cupolas of their interior. It is executed in a potstone of creamy colour, which can be polished till it resembles marble; soft when quarried, but hardening rapidly on exposure to the air. The carving has evidently been done when the surface had thus weathered. Fergusson's opinion may here also be quoted. "There are many buildings in India (he says) which are unsurpassed for delicacy of detail by any in the world, but the temples at Bēlūr and Halebīd surpass even these for freedom of handling and richness of fancy. . . . The amount of labour which each facet of this porch (Bēlūr) displays is such as I believe never was bestowed on any surface of equal extent in any building in the world." Of the minute elaboration of detail in the frieze of the Halebīd temple, he says, "it may probably be considered as one of the most marvellous exhibitions of human labour to be found even in the patient East. . . . No two facets of the temple are the same; every convolution of every scroll is different. No two canopies in the whole building are alike, and every part exhibits a joyous exuberance of fancy scorning every mechanical restraint."
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In architecture the palm must be given to the ornate temples erected by the Hoysalas, or during the period of their ascendancy, in the style which has been named Chalukyan. Regarding these the same authority remarks as follows: "The artistic combination of horizontal with vertical lines, and the play of outline and of light and shade far surpass anything in Gothic art. The effects are just what mediæval architects were often aiming at, but which they never attained so perfectly as was done at Halebīd." Of the temples there, he says: "The great temple (the Hoysalēśvara), had it been completed, is one of the buildings on which the advocate of Hindu architecture would desire to take his stand. . . . And if carried out with the richness of detail exhibited in the Kēdārēśvara, would have made up a whole which it would be difficult to rival anywhere. . . . If it were possible to illustrate this little temple (the Kēdārēśvara) in anything like completeness, there is probably nothing in India which would convey a better idea of what its architects were capable of accomplishing. . . . By a curious coincidence it was contemporaneous with the English cathedrals of Lincoln, Salisbury, and Wells, or the great French churches at Amiens, Rheims, and Chartres, of course without any communication. But it is worthy of remark that the great architectural age in India should have been the thirteenth century, which witnessed such a wonderful development of a kindred style (meaning the Gothic) in Europe.”
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The following list of the principal temples of this style in Mysore, with the dates of their erection, may be useful for purposes of comparison :—
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| DATE | TEMPLE | PLACE | REFERENCE |
| 1117 | Chenna Kēśava | Bēlūr | Bl 58, 71 |
| *c.* 1141 | Hoysalēśvara | Halebīḍ | Bl 239 |
| 1171 | Brahmēśvara | Kikkēri | Kr 53 |
| 1173 | Būchēśvara | Kōravangala | Hn 71 |
| 1196 | Amṛtēśvara | Amṛtapura | Tk 45 |
| 1219 | Kēdārēśvara | Halebīḍ | Bl 115 |
| 1224 | Hariharēśvara | Harihar | Dg 25 |
| 1234 | Sōmēśvara | Hāranhalli | Ak 123 |
| 1235 | Mallikārjuna | Basarālu | Md 121 |
| 1268 | Kēśava | Sōmanāthpur | Dg 36, TN 97 |
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Of course no single date can be given for the Hoysalēśvara, which was more like a national monument,—under construction for a long period, and never completed. It is a double temple, and Fergusson says was left unfinished, being interrupted by the Muhammadan conquest, after the works had been in progress for eighty-six years; but no authority is given for this statement. Of the positive dates obtained from inscriptions, the carving over the southern doorway is stated (Bl 239) to have been executed for the sculptor of Pratāpa-Nārasimha or Nārasimha I. This indicates that the fabric of the building was then complete, say in 1141 or somewhat later. Of the votive offerings inscribed on the inner walls, the earliest appears to be Bl 105, in which the double temple, dedicated to Hoysaleśvara and Panchikeśvara, is fully recognised, and grants are made for the two gods by the sēnabhōva of the senior queen Kētala-Dēvī. Now, she was the queen of Ballāla II, and is mentioned in 1177 (Hn 54). The temple was thus begun after the one at Bēlūr, and the body of the building completed in the time of Nārasimha I. The sculpture of the exterior walls was no doubt carried on during the subsequent reign of Ballāla II, when decorative features were also added to the Bēlūr temple (Bl 72). There is a story, indeed, that the pierced medallions, like those at Bēlūr, which have evidently been removed from their brackets on the outer pillars, were taken away at the end of the eighteenth century by Count de Lally, the French ally of Haidar Ali, (or perhaps by the younger Lally), and that he sent a sum of money from France as compensation to the temple. The stoppage of work on the building was probably due to the Sēuna invasions in the reigns of Nārasimha II and Sōmēśvara, followed by the removal of the royal residence by the latter in about 1236 to Kannanūr, near Trichinopoly. But the beautiful and completed Sōmanāthpur temple was built after this, in the reign of Nārasimha III. It is a triple temple, and has often furnished a model for silver or gold caskets.
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TEMPLE AT SŌMĀNĀTHPUR.