Amrutheswara Temple

- Carvings Marinated In Inspiration And Passion

By Tharangini

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They say you can visit a place of religious significance only if the place calls you.  When we left home that morning, visiting the Amrutheswara temple was nowhere in our list. But I guess the calling was so strong that we pulled over by the side of the road and after a 15 min discussion with our driver, we dropped all our other plans and headed towards the Amrutheswara temple in the Chikmagaluru district.

It was hardly 8 am on that Tuesday morning in February  and summer was already heralding its own arrival in no uncertain terms. Wearing black was not a good idea and I was already regretting the color of my attire. We were unsuccessfully trying to ignore the soaring temperature the day ahead had planned for us.

Amrutheswara temple

All these thoughts evaporated at the sight of the temple that emerged before us after a 50 km drive from Shimoga.  The temple stood in glorious silence. The air was crisp and clean. I immediately felt as if I was swaddled in a blanket of peace and calm, lulling away all stray thoughts. It was effortless to feel centered in these surroundings. The benefits of visiting early and that too on a weekday cannot be undermined.

Apart from a few local people who were regular visitors,  we were the only ones who were there to read the walls, listen to its stories and walk down the memory lane of its glorious days, that morning. Needless to say, we were thrilled. Whatever force and energy had pulled us to this almost 900 year old temple, seemed to know that this was the perfect time for us to visit.

The temple entrance

Built in 1196 CE by Amrutheswara 'Dhandanayaka' who was a commander in the army of King Veera Ballala II, this temple boasts of some unique features. The chief architect of the temple Mallitamma, had breathed life into the sculptures with unhinged passion.  The 42 years of efforts that went behind building this masterpiece seeped out of every chisel stroke.

Temple compound wall
with circular motifs

One of the motifs on the compound wall

Let's start from the outer compound wall and then take a walk inside. Circular motifs, each 2 feet in diameter, adorned the wall at equal intervals. A nice gentleman who was associated with the temple in multiple ways, introduced us to a lot of unusual information about the temple. The compound wall was originally 8-10 ft, he told us. Now it stood just over 5 ft, which made me wonder what other surprises would have got buried along with the wall over the years.

The star-shaped temple beckoned us to experience its magnificence and the significantly lower temperature inside. Temperature controlled and Eco-friendly architecture, a clear indication of how much we still had to learn from our ancestors.  The weathered floor was soothingly therapeutic on the feet and it was impossible to ignore the positive shift in the energy inside.

The polished Pillars and
the weathered floor

52 smooth lathe carved pillars in shining black mirror finish held up the open mantapa and the closed sanctum. This was similar to the other Hoysala temples we saw earlier, like the Itagi Mahadeva temple and the Belavadi Veeranarayana temple. The pillars here had one more story for us according to the multifaceted gentleman who was enthralling us with the temple's history.  He told us that this finish was achieved by mixing aromatic plants and herbs to the masonry during the process of the pillars being carved.  The plants and herbs were collected, dried and powdered before being mixed to the masonry.

He also added that no amount of studies conducted on the pillars, by archaeologists and scientists from various capacities, had managed to unearth the secret of these ingredients. All that was known was that some plant based matter was the secret to the good health and good looks of these pillars.

Note to self - time to stop ignoring my greens. If they help pillars stay young and healthy... well, who am I to argue.

Comfortable and wide seating ran throughout the inside of the open mantapa.  The quiet corners perfect for those meditative and contemplative moments, or just connect with the divine. Given a chance, I would have parked myself there too. The cool stone had the magic of magnetically pulling away all the stress.

The sanctum receiving lesser light was darker than outside. The main deity of the temple is Lord Shiva and regular 'puja' happens at the temple. The Shiva Linga is made of Saligrama and was sourced all the way from the Gandaki  river in Nepal. This Saligrama is said to encompass the trinity of Hindu gods along with their consorts and is said to be the second unique feature of this beautiful temple.

Gopuras on the outer
walls of the temple

Gopuras tucked even in the
 corners of the temple

The third feature was on the outside. Running all along the temple exterior were sculpted gopuras or temple towers. An entire row of carvings was dedicated to these unending gopuras, each in varying shape and size.  Immaculate, intricate, incredible and I really cannot think of more words beginning with 'I ' to describe the view, but hope I've made the point. No other Hoysala temple built during that time is said to have this kind of architecture.

A Hero stone
outside the temple

This temple also has four hero stones. Hero stones were erected to commemorate the memory of a fallen warrior. The bottom panel usually shows the circumstance of the warrior's death. The middle panel shows the warrior ascending to heaven, most commonly depicted with the warrior sitting in a palanquin and carried to the heavens by 'Apsaras' or heavenly angels. The top panel shows the warrior in heaven, worshiping a Linga. Two of these stones were inside the sanctum and two more were outside.

The Mantapa to the right of the temple

On the right of the temple was a mantapa. Though this would have had its days of glory, right now it was just empty and unattended. On the right side was a temple dedicated to Sri  Sharada Devi. Regular 'puja' happened here too.

All along the outer temple wall were carvings,  depicting stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata along with the story of Krishna. They were seamlessly etched in multiple panels.  The Ramayana story was on the southern wall, running anti clockwise and the Mahabharata was on the Northern wall running clockwise. But that's a story for another day, not too far in the future. So please stay tuned.

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