Somnathpur, Bela visit to either Somnathpur or Belur-Halebid is an experience, for here you will see a style of architecture unique to the region. The temples were built in the twelfth to thirteenth centuries byHoysala rulers and their officials. They are comparatively stunted {unlike the temple at Madurai, the Lingaraja of Orissa, or the large temples of Khajuraho}. Each small, compact structural temple is lavishly decorated with sculpture and the profusion covers every inch of wall space.
This tightly packed sculptural scheme is exclusive to Hoysala art and was never replicated. Part of the reason for such intricate and ornate artwork was the nature of the stone used at these three sites. Chlorite is a dark grey-green stone, which offered the sculptor a surface that could be chiselled so finely that it looked like lace. A bangle could be made to rotate on a sculpted hand and stone bells could be made to ring on a statue. While many critics find the rich sculptural decoration too ornate and baroque, no one can question the excellence of each individual statue.
The Hoysala artist was a perfectionist: his challenging artistic motto seemed to have been "make the impossible, possible". Somnathpur is 38 kilometresdhi from Mysore {138 kilometres from Bangalore} while the twin sites, Belur and Halebid, are 157 kilometres from Mysore {222 kilometres from Bangalore and 16 kilometres from each other}.