Twenty-six kilometers away from the most iconic building of hoysaLa-s, the belUru kEshava temple, seated is a quiet village doDDagaddavaLLi hosting a peculiar yet extremely interesting temple complex built for dEvi mahAlakshmI. Though not as exuberant in intricacy and effusively iconographic as the other popular hoysaLa temples, doDDagaddavaLLi still offers a great insight into the evolution of hoysaLa style of architecture, the social life in the early hoysaLa period, the rare form of chatuShkUTa arrangement and its beautiful symmetry.

Built 900 years ago, in 1114 during the rule of the great viShNuvardhana, the temple is the lone hoysaLa construct of its kind – the quadruplet shrines. [bElUru has a single shrine, haLEbIDu has two, hosahoLalu and sOmanAthapura have three, and gOvindanahaLLi has the rare five shrines interconnected.] The village and the temple were not founded by the king or any of his ministers but by a merchant who enjoyed a great business success during the period. The mahA vaDDavyavahAri – kullahaNa rAhuta and his wife sahajAdEvi hailing from kolhApura were inspired by the deity herself to build this temple. The temple had become so prominent in that age that the village doDDagaddavaLLi earned the epithet of abhinava-kolhApura.

The sthapati of the temple is unambiguously a certain mallOja-mANiyOja; the disputable part though is, if the title represents one person or two persons – father and son, perhaps. Nonetheless, they were a significant pair of architect-sculptor of the early hoysaLa period, and have created a historical piece of architecture. The inscription in the temple complex explains: mallOja-mANiyOja built the temple of mahAlakshmI as if [it was] creation ofvishvakarma himself. It appears from the works of many modern day researchers that the duo were well versed in the shilpashAstra-s.

As evident from the above image, the structure not based on any elevated platform or jagati, the commonly found feature in the later hoysaLa architecture. The three vimAna-s are in the distinct kadamba style while that of the lakshmI dEvi shrine is in drAviDa style. Apart from the main four shrines, the complex has five more, smaller, but beautiful shrines – one each in the four corners bearing the sculpture of saLa stabbing a tiger and a little bigger shrine for bhairava consisting of a garbhagR~ha and a sukhanAsi, facing South. The entire complex of approximately 110’ x 120’ area has two entrances – one on to the East facing a tank and the other on to the West facing the village. The West entrance consists of a manTapa supported on sixteen ornate pillars while the same for the East entrance is missing. The main entrance into the shrine complex guarded by vaishNava dvArapalaka-s is facing West.

The immediate space upon entering the shrine complex is the navaranga receiving the shrine dedicated to kALi facing South. The main mUrti is a stunning life size sculpture of the dEvi seated on the back of rudra with a small mUrti of gaNapati at her feet. The shrine is guarded by two big mUrti-s of vEtALa facing each other, in the sukhanAsi. The navaranga ceiling has ornate carving of a male figure holding sword. The ceiling of the kALi shrine has lotus carving while the lintel has a tusked head with prEta-s on each side.

The kALi shrine is set little apart from the group of other three shrines which share a common navaranga with aShTadigpAla-s intricately carved out of the ceiling supported by pillars. The shrine facing the kALi shrine is dedicated to viShNu and the lintel at the entrance of the garbhagR~ha has yOgAnarasimha relief on it. The mUrti of viShNu – the kEshava form, though, is missing inside. To the left of the viShNu shrine is the shrine dedicated to bhUtanAtha, with a garbhgR~ha having an entrance lintel with a beautiful gajalakshmI relief. The mUrti of bhUtanAtha is in the li~Nga form. Exactly opposite to this is the shrine dedicated to lakshmIdEvi with no sukhanAsi attached unlike the other three shrines. The entrance lintel has tA~nDavEshvara relief. This aShTabhuja shiva image marks a milestone in the timeline of hoysaLa architecture – the first naTanA mUrti of shiva of hoysaLa shilpa. The dEvi mUrti is a sculpture of 4-5 ft tall in standing posture flanked by female attendants on each side. The dEvi is holding sha~Nkha in the upper right hand, chakra in the upper left, gadA in the lower left and bears an abhaya mudrA in the lower right hand.

The exterior of walls does not exhibit any intricate sculptures at all, expect the miniature of ornate gOpura-s at regular intervals, and one stunning sculpture of harasiddhi, the goddess who confers attainment of the desired ends to her votaries; the dEvi carries the Damaru, the kama~nDalu, the khaDga and a drinking vessel.

The enclosure of the temple complex has several mutilated sculptures lying around. It also houses a vIragallu [hero stone] and an all important stone inscription which details the story behind the village-temple building and explains the technical matter concerning the construction of the temple. The inscription is in ancient kannaDa and in hoysaLa kannaDa script – one of the most decorative forms in the evolution of the kannaDa script.

The village hosts another temple, much smaller in size, currently in a dilapidated state, dedicated to virUpAkSha svAmi. The annual jAtre of the svAmi takes place around yugAdi.

Although the temple is dedicated to mahAlakshmI, and famous for the same, the place was, at some point in time, an important site for shAkta-s. But the specialty of the temple lies with it hosting both shiva-shakti and viShNu-lakshmI in the same building. The temple is one of the oldest active shrines in the state of karNATaka today.

Do visit. Not as just a tourist!

A short description of the temple with a beautiful collage of images can be seen here: http://vimeo.com/12689817

References:

1] Architecture and Sculpture in Mysore – No. III, Mysore Archaeological Series, R. Narasimhachar; The Mysore Government Press, Mysore, 1919.

2] Elements of Hindu Iconography – Vol. I, Part II, T. A. Gopinath Rao; Indological Book House, Varanasi, 1971.

3] ಹೊಯ್ಸಳ ಶಿಲ್ಪದಲ್ಲಿ ಶಿವ: ಪುರಾತತ್ವ, ಇತಿಹಾಸ ಮತ್ತು ಕಲೆ, ಡಾ| ಮೈಸೂರು ನಾಗರಾಜ ಶರ್ಮಾ; ಪ್ರಸಾರಾಂಗ, ಮೈಸೂರು ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾನಿಲಯ, ಮೈಸೂರು, ೨೦೧೦.