I had not explored Hubballi at all until my cousin googled and wanted to see
this temple. Our cabbie had no idea, nor did we. I tried to convince him that
it might have been the Channa Basaveswara temple on the Unkal Lake and not the
one in Unkal Circle, as he contended. But, the boy held his ground, and pointed
out that the elevation of the temple looked drastically different; he even
showed me some googled pics. Those were enough to convince me and the
historian-in-the-family to go for it. After asking for directions from nearly ten people, and losing our way in the by-lanes
and narrow alleys, we found this magnificent edifice of 10th-11th century
vintage! It was late Western Chalukyan, and had some additions made by the
Hoyasala or even the Vijayanagara rulers! We thought we'll pay respects to Lord
Siva on a festive day, but lost ourselves so much that we didn't regret having
to give up our original plan of watching the orange sunset from
Nripatungabetta. We thought we'd missed it, but got a breathtaking view from an
unexpected location. The sunset pics will find place in a different post.
This temple resembled the Kakatiya temple of
Rudreswara (Warangal) popular as the 1000 pillared temple. What was unusual
here was that there were two Sivalingas, one big one in front and a four- faced
one at the rear. The cut rocks were arranged into sockets for strength; one
will not fail to notice the height at which it must have been constructed, and
the under- step drainage! (Our local bodies can perhaps get some inspiration
from it!)
Enjoy the pics.................
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| The lines are indicative of old inhabitation! |
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Hoyasala impact
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| Vijayanagara renovation? |
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| Rear entrance |
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| Socket |
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| Freizes |
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| Ventilation on the front |
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Bali peetham
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| Front torana |
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