Karnataka's Hoysala temples' Sacred Ensembles inscribed on UNESCO World Heritage List

A day after West Bengal's Shanti Niketan, the Sacred Ensembles of Hoysala temples in Karnataka were on Monday inscribed on the UNESCO Heritage List. In January last year, India had nominated the sacred ensembles of the Hoysalas for UNESCO's World Heritage List.

The sacred ensembles of the Hoysalas, built in the 12th-13th centuries and represented by the three components of Belur, Halebid, and Somnathapura, attest to the creativity and skill of the Hoysala artists and architects who built these masterpieces of a kind never seen before or since.

"The Hoysala architects used their profound knowledge of temple architecture in different parts of India to their advantage," the Ministry of Culture had said in a statement issued at the time of nomination.

The Hoysala temples have a basic Dravidian morphology but show strong influences of the Bhumija mode widely used in Central India, the Nagara traditions of northern and western India, and the Karntata Dravida modes favoured by the Kalyani Chalukyas.

"Therefore, the Hoysala architects made considered and informed eclectic selections of features from other temple typologies which they further modified and then complemented with their own particular innovations. The result was the birth of a completely novel 'Hoysala Temple' form."

In a statement, UNESCO said that this serial property encompasses the three most representative examples of Hoysala-style temple complexes in southern India, dating from the 12th to 13th centuries. "The Hoysala style was created through careful selection of contemporary temple features and those from the past to create a different identity from neighbouring kingdoms."

The global cultural organisation said that the shrines are characterised by hyper-real sculptures and stone carvings that cover the entire architectural surface, a circumambulatory platform, a large-scale sculptural gallery, a multi-tiered frieze, and sculptures of the Sala legend. "The excellence of the sculptural art underpins the artistic achievement of these temple complexes, which represent a significant stage in the historical development of Hindu temple architecture."