The next day saw us drove towards Halebeedu. Belur and Halebeedu temples are said to be the twin temples in this vicinity. We had to cross Belur from Lakunda to reach Halebeedu. This took us around 55 minutes to reach. We parked our car in the allocated parking lot and walked towards the temple after paying the parking fees. We saw several school children making their trip to the temple. Inside the temple near the Hoysaleswarar shrine there is a circular space where danseurs used to dance. The school children are asked to sit here while their guide explains the importance structures of the temple.
The entrance to the shrine of Lord Shiva the temple deity is intricately designed. Top of the entrance has small sculptures which are very detailed. Here again we saw the pillar carvings similar to the Belur temple. The ring like structures on the pillar are said to have been done with the help of horses. Ropes tied to the horses when pulled either side would make those markings on the pillar. The ring marks in the adjacent pillars are carved in similar fashion with minute ones too.
The Hoysaleswarar shrine is set on a star like stage of stone. All stone carvings here and in the Chennakesava temple are done on Soapstone which is set to have helped with the sculpting. Some of the sculptures we have in detailed appalled us.
There are two lingas here, one - the main deity and the second is near the circular dance stage. For each of the Siva, there is a huge Nandi outside. Each Nandi complex is surrounded with seating area. When you look at the Nandi's, here again their tails and the folded legs so well done. The temple complex houses a museum, park and a huge lake as well. One can easily spend half a day here.
Very near to this is the Kadareshwara temple and the Jain basadi temple. Kadareshwara temple is almost deserted unlike the Hoysaleswara. This also has the shrine on top of a bed of stone. It looks more unfinished as the shrines are empty inside. The Jain basadi complex had a huge Mahaveer statue. The whole complex takes around an hour to walk through. We were exhausted by this time and craved for lunch.
Close by was the traditional food restaurant. For Rs.200 they provided authentic Kannada lunch. Food was good. But use and throw plate was not expected for Rs.200 per plate lunch. Different ambience and the quiet atmosphere provided a good experience of having lunch on the whole. With this we headed back to our home stay and closed for the day.
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