{"id":37434,"date":"2023-09-25T05:06:34","date_gmt":"2023-09-24T23:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=37434"},"modified":"2025-04-22T14:11:26","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T08:41:26","slug":"hoysala-temples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/hoysala-temples\/","title":{"rendered":"Hoysala Temples on UNESCO Heritage List"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in Today\u2019s Article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is Global Debt?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Why is Global Debt Rising?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Is the Rising Global Debt a Cause for Worry?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Three Hoysala-era temples in Karnataka [Chennakeshava (Belur), Hoysaleswara (Halebidu) and Keshava Temple (Somanathapura, Mysuru)] recently made it to UNESCO\u2019s World Heritage List, under the collective entry of \u2018<strong>Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas<\/strong>\u2019.<\/li>\n<li>The announcement was made by UNESCO, during the World Heritage Committee\u2019s 45th session in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Who were the Hoysalas?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/media\/editor_images\/2023\/9\/25\/11\/52\/12\/65112714f1d6ee0596e3af99_OI.PNG\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Hoysalas, which began as provincial governors under the Western Chalukyas, held power in <strong>Karnataka from the 10th century to the 14th century<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The dynasty came to power when the two dominant empires of the South, the Western Chalukyas and the Cholas crumbled.<\/li>\n<li>The capital of the Hoysalas was initially located at <strong>Belur<\/strong>, but was later moved to <strong>Halebidu<\/strong>(or Dwarasamudra).<\/li>\n<li>It was an important period in the development of South Indian<strong> art, architecture, and religion<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The empire is remembered today primarily for <strong>Hoysala architecture<\/strong> &#8211; ~100 surviving temples are scattered across Karnataka.<\/li>\n<li><strong>No known monuments other than temples<\/strong>, like palaces or forts, survive from the Hoysala period.\n<ul>\n<li>This is one of the paradoxes of the early medieval and medieval non-Islamic world, because the <strong>non-temple buildings were all built in either mud or brick or wood.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>About the Hoysala Temples:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Hoysala temples are known for the <strong>rare beauty and finesse of their wall sculptures<\/strong>, and have been described as <strong>art which applies to stone the technique of the ivory worker or the goldsmith<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>One notable feature of Hoysala architecture is the use of <strong>soapstone<\/strong>, a malleable stone that is easy to carve.<\/li>\n<li>This is one of the <strong>reasons behind the abundance of intricate sculptures<\/strong> (animals, scenes of daily life, depictions from the epics and the Puranas)one can see on the temple walls.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The temples are generally built on stellate (star-shaped) platforms<\/strong>, and have several structures inside the complex.<\/li>\n<li>Another special feature of Hoysala architecture is the unique confluence of styles &#8211; Hoysala architecture is an <strong>amalgamation of 3 distinctive styles <\/strong>(Dravidian, Vesara and the North Indian Nagara style).<\/li>\n<li>An interesting feature of Hoysala temples is that they are <strong>\u2018signed\u2019 <\/strong>&#8211; the sculptors, masons leave behind their names, and sometimes a few more details.<\/li>\n<li>These<strong> Vaishnava and Shaiva shrines <\/strong>were built at the time Jainism was prominent in the region, and thus <strong>mark a turn towards Hinduism<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>About the Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Built in the 12th and 13th centuries<\/strong>, the 3 temples selected for the UNESCO list are important not just because they <strong>demonstrate their builders\u2019 superior skill<\/strong>, but also because they<strong> narrate the tale of the politics that shaped them.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The Chennakeshava temple<\/strong> (dedicated to Lord Vishnu) was consecrated around 1117 AD by the mighty Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana, to mark his victories against the Cholas.\n<ul>\n<li>It is thus also called the Vijaya Narayana temple.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Kesava temple<\/strong> (also a Vaishnava shrine) was built in Somanathapura in 1268 by Somanatha, a general of Hoysala King Narasimha III.\n<ul>\n<li>It is built in the shape of a 16-point star and has 3 shrines dedicated to Keshava (the statue is missing now), Janardhana and Venugopala.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Hoysaleswara temple<\/strong> is believed to be the largest <strong>Shiva temple<\/strong> built by the Hoysalas, and is dated to the 12th century.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"media\">\n<div data-oembed-url=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cGkq87pxy_Q\">\n<div><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cGkq87pxy_Q\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2>\u00a0<\/h2>\n<h2><strong>About the UNESCO World Heritage Sites:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A World Heritage Site (WHS) is a landmark or area <strong>with legal protection by an international convention <\/strong>administered by the UNESCO under the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, established in <strong>1972<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>These sites are designated by UNESCO for having<strong> cultural, historical, scientific\u00a0<\/strong>or other forms of significance.<\/li>\n<li>The sites, classified as <strong>cultural, natural and mixed <\/strong>(meeting both cultural and natural criteria) heritage around the world, are considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.<\/li>\n<li>To be selected, a WHS <strong>must be a somehow unique landmark<\/strong> which is geographically and historically identifiable and has special cultural or physical significance.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>For example<\/strong>, WHSs might be ancient ruins or historical structures, buildings, cities, deserts, forests, islands, lakes, monuments, mountains or wilderness areas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>These sites are demarcated by UNESCO as <strong>protected zones<\/strong> and the list is maintained by the international <strong>World Heritage Program<\/strong> administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.<\/li>\n<li>As of September 2023, A total of 1,199 WHSs exist across 166 countries.\n<ul>\n<li>With 59 selected areas, <strong>Italy <\/strong>is the country with the most sites on the list; <strong>China <\/strong>is the second with 57 sites<\/li>\n<li>Presently, there are <strong>42 WHSs<\/strong> (including 3 Hoysala-era temples) located in <strong>India <\/strong>(out of these, 34 are cultural, 7 are natural and 1 is mixed).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What is the basic difference between the Dravida and Nagara styles of temple architecture?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In South India (Dravida), the temple gateways are adorned with towering gopurams that lead to smaller interior towers, while in the north (Nagara), it&#8217;s the opposite.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) What is the panchayatana style of temple architecture?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Panchayatana is a style of temple construction that has a central shrine surrounded by four other shrines. Example, Jagdish Temple in Udaipur.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-history\/hoysala-temples-unesco-sacred-ensembles-8953394\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Hoysala temples on UNESCO heritage list: What sets the \u2018Sacred Ensembles\u2019 apart, what stories they tell<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>3 Hoysala-era temples in Karnataka &#8211; Chennakeshava, Hoysaleswara and Keshava &#8211; recently made it to UNESCO\u2019s World Heritage List, under the collective entry of \u2018Sacred Ensembles of the Hoysalas\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37434","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}