Monthly Archives: December 2008

Hoysala construction techniques in Halebidu

Until recently my plans of seeing Halebidu seemed jinxed. I always started with the temple in Belur and by the time I was done with Belur it was too late to see Halebidu properly. I was told that Halebidu was much more impressive than Belur, but I hadn’t had a chance to see it well until a few days ago.

A few days ago I visited the ruins of the temples in Halebidu. It was quite a sight to behold. And this, despite the fact that the temple was, in fact, incomplete, and had been vandalized by the Muslim invaders first, and the British later. Much like Belur, each carving in the temple tells a story. Each carving or sculpture deserves its own post. So I won’t even attempt to describe my entire visit in this post. I might write up separate posts for select sculptures later, but for now, I’d like to focus on the techniques used by the Hoysalas to build the temples.

Big Banyan Tree near Bangalore

My month long vacation back home in Bangalore began on the 10th of this month. It started with a visit to the Big Banyan Tree. It is a 400 year old Banyan Tree (that’s Strangler Fig, for you Yankees ;) ) that spans over 2 acres. It was quite a sight to see with aerial