LORD HOYALESWARA OF HALEBIDU

It was here Sala, the founder of the Hoyasla dynasty killed a firocious Sardula with a mere bamboo stick, when it attacked his Jain guru called Sudattamuni; it was this city that owes its glory to the temple, the nucleus around with the township developed during the beginning of Vinayaditya's reign in 1047 AD in a matter of few years; it is this temple's sculpture that won appreciation from several connoisseurs of foreign countries; and it is the exterior of this double shrine, more exquisitely and elegantly fashioned than its interior, which indeed lifts the souls of the visitors from a long distance even without actually entering the precincts.

Renowned as a centre of great political activity, religious sanctity, cultural historicity, this Halebidu, a by-word in Indian sculptural art specialised in decoration has been luring theists and art-lovers over some thousand years now. Its spiritual glory and political supremacy seem vying with each other ever since, the place was chosen by the illustrious kings, who illustrated their religious Catholicism through an illustriously inimitable sculptural medium. Rulers and sculptors here seem competed with one another, as it were for the much-coveted prize of immortality. The supreme dispenser of Justice bracketed them both willingly without the impact of subjectivity. So let us give three cheers to the august three - God, ruler and sculptor.

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