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Keshava Temple - SOMNATHPUR

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Keshava Temple - SOMNATHPUR

The Keshava Temple is the best-preserved most complete monument of Hoysala architecture. The temple is believed to have been built (around AD 1268) under the patronage of Somnatha, a general in the army of Narasimha II. The mature Hoysala temple was enclosed within a courtyard, with several sub-shrines, as in Somnathpur. The traditional Hindu temple consists of a square garbha griha proceeded by a mandap and� Elaborating on this, the architects here made a significant innovation by (hypothetically) rotating the square sanctum to form a star with many radiating points. The temple wall, instead of being basically rectangular and plain, acquired, in the Hoysala style, a series of angular projections, which increased (for the sculptor) the surface area of the wall a hundredfold. The star shaped plan of the shrine is characteristic of this style but such elaboration did not end here--even the shikhara that crowned the building developed a flower-like or star shape. The temples, instead of halving merely one sanctum, had three as in Somnathpur, or were built like siamese twins as a joint--double temple, like the one in Halebid. The star-shaped plan was further extended to incorporate these additional shrines, and what resulted was a very flamboyant structure with a minimum of long straight walls. The entire temple was built on a broad platform to enable devotees to perform pradaxina� of the temple to view the wonderful world of sculpture that adorns the outer wall surface.

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