Sridhara Temple, Javagallu, Hassan District.
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While traversing the Belur-Halebid-Banavara stretch, a tiny village
called Javagallu catches one's attention. This small, obscure village
was once the flourishing capital of the Hoysalas.
Lakshminarasimha temple at Javagallu, constructed in 13th century A D.
Although the prototype of this style was available as early as A D
1121, in the Hoysaleswara temple in Halebid, it took a century to catch
the imagination of the architects. However the 13th century saw a spurt
of temples constructed in keeping with this architectural style in
Aralaguppe, Hosaholalu, Javagallu, and Somanathapura.
The Lakshminarasimha temple has three sanctums. The deity adorning the
central sanctum is Vishnu in the form of Sridhara, a rare feature in
itself as no other Hoysala temple has Sridhara as a central deity,
followed by Venugopala in the southern sanctum and Lakshminarasimha in
the northern sanctum. Only the central sanctum has the antarala
(vestibule) connecting the navaranga and the sanctum. The basement of
the temple has six carved friezes of elephants, horses, scroll,
mythological scenes, makaras, and hamsas. Look carefully and one can
identify scenes from Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas. However, no
inscription has been found regarding the consecration of the temple.
The inimitable sculptor Mallitamma, who had worked on half-a-dozen
temples built over a period of seven decades starting from Amritapura
to Somanathapura, had a major role to play in the construction of this
temple. Chika Malitamma and Pamayana assisted him.
The outer walls exhibit the Chaturvimsati murthy the 24 forms of
Vishnu, leaving little place for the other gods and goddesses such as
Brahma, Harihara, Parvati, and Mahisamardini.
The central vimana has staggering walls projecting forward to indicate
the composition of pancharatha formation, with a three-tala tower
vaulting high crowned by a modern kalasa. The other two vimanas are
identical to the central vimana except for the latter's tower and
sukanasi.
The navaranga consists of nine ankanas, divided by round pillars and
the nine ceilings of concentric circles. Two niches in the navaranga
contain Ganesa and Chamundi. A high compound wall surrounds the temple
and a mahadwara built during the Vijayanagar period is the only
entrance to the temple.
