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Halebidu, Karnataka - Hoysaleshwara Temple Wall Carvings

The temple outer walls are intricately carved. Its lowest layers consist of bands with friezes that consist of (from bottom to top) elephants, lions, scrolls with nature and miniature dancers, horses, scrolls, scenes from Hindu texts,[10] mythical beasts (makara) and swans. According to Shadakshari Settar, the artwork shows details as "no two lions are alike in the entire span that covers more than a furlong (200 metres)", the artists "captured the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and the main episodes of the Bhagavata". The temple's outer wall is a pictorial narration of Hindu epics, and its middle portion has large panels where "the entire pantheon of Hindu divinities are presented, it is a manual of Hindu iconography", states Settar. According to Foekema and other art historians, the quality and quantity of the epics-related "friezes are amazing", but the panel series do not complete the story in a stretch, rather after a stretch, another text is intermingled in for a while. The outer walls of the Hoysaleswara temple shrines feature 340 large reliefs.

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Uploaded on February 29, 2024
Taken on December 3, 2023