The main deity of Beluru Keshava is a male deity, he is dressed as a female here and is worshipped as Mohini. According to Puranas, Vishnu took the form of a beautiful maiden named Mohini to slay a demon named Bhasmasura. The Mohini-Bhasmasura event is believed to have taken place at the premises of the Belur temple.
A young man slaying a ferocious lion is the emblem you see in every temple built by the Hoysala kings. On either side of the main door to the temple, you will see these sculptures. There are two theories to what it signifies.
The first theory is that a lion attacked the Gurukula where a man named Sala was studying. His Guru Sudipta threw a sword at Sala and shouted the words ‘Poy Sala,’ which translates to ‘Strike, Sala.’ Young Sala wrestled the lion, subdued it, and eventually stuck the sword through its belly. When Sala went on to build his own Empire, he named it after his teacher’s words ‘Hoysala.’ Poy has become Hoy here.
The second theory is that a later Hoysala ruler, King Vishnuvardhana, created this emblem to signify his victory against a King from the powerful Chola dynasty. The emblem of the Cholas being a lion, this figurine symbolically represents Vishnuvardhana subduing a Chola king. This story is more credible given the inscriptions in the temples.
Image credit: Ishwar Phulari
Once you enter the Belur temple complex through the Gopura, you will see 3 prominent structures.
1. In line with the Gopura and the Dhvaja-sthamba is the main temple dedicated to Lord ChennaKeshava that you see here.
2. To the north of the main temple is the Kappe Chennigaraya temple.
3. To the west of the main temple is the Veeranarayana temple.
In the Chennakeshava temple placed at the foot of the Dhvaja-sthamba is a sculpture of the divine bird Garuda, who is part bird and part human and is the mount of God Vishnu.
This sculpture, though has Hoysala-style carvings, is a recent one sculpted by Javaracharya from Mysore in the early 20th century.
A Gopura is an entryway that stands tall at all southern Indian temples. These are tapering structures are usually ornate and multi-storied. One enters a temple or a temple complex through a Gopura.
This golden-hued Gopura at the Chennakeshava temple is in the middle of a boundary wall that surrounds the temple. According to inscriptions, the original structure built by the Hoysala King Vishnuvardhana was demolished in an attack by the Delhi Sultanate. This seven-storied Gopura that stands on firm granite pillars was later rebuilt by the Vijaynagar King Harihara II in the year 1397. The inscriptions sing praises of King Harihara who not only rebuilt the Gopura, but also reinstated the temple grants and 67 services to Lord Keshava started by King Vishnuvardhana.
The Chennakeshava temple is in the state of Karnataka in the town of Beluru. The many inscriptions carved on the walls of the temple and on standalone stones have well preserved the history of the Hoysala dynasty and the temple. The inscriptions call this town Velapura which has eventually become Beluru.
King Vishnuvardhana was the first Hoysala ruler who declared independence from his overlords, the Chalukyas. Vishnuvardhana was unstoppable after his independence. He won against a formidable opponent, the Cholas from the state of Tamil Nadu. Cholas had long occupied Talakadu, a province near Mysore in Karnataka. Vishnuvardhana is lauded for bringing Talakadu back to being a Kannada province.
To commemorate his victory against the Cholas, King Vishnuvardhana built a temple for Vijaya Narayana in Beluru. Vijaya means Victory and Narayana is a name of Lord Vishnu. However, over the years the deity came to be known as Chennakeshava – the beautiful Keshava. The legend has it that the deity was so good-looking, people started referring to it as Chenna-Keshava rather than Vijaya-Narayana. Keshava is another name of Lord Vishnu and ‘Chenna’ translates to ‘a thing of beauty’ in Kannada.
The Chennakeshava temple was built in the year 1117 and the work took nearly a hundred years and three generations to complete. This architectural marvel had more than twenty-thousand skilled sculptors and lakhs of laborers working on it. The Kings in ancient times built temples not only to showcase their power and prosperity but also to encourage art and provide employment. The Beluru temple was built by King Vishnuvardhana for the same purposes.
The temple is built according to Vastu Shastra and Agama Shastra, the ancient Hindu sciences of architecture. The fact that the temple stands firm even after a thousand years is testimony to the sound principles it was built on.