Description: | Photograph from an album of 40 albumen prints by Edmund David Lyon. View along the south-west façade of the mid-12th century Hoysaleshvara temple at Halebid in Karnataka, showing rich sculptural and moulding details. Lyon's 'Notes to Accompany a Series of Photographs Prepared to Illustrate the Ancient Architecture of Southern India' (Marion & Co., London, 1870), edited by James Fergusson, gives the following description of this photograph: 'The figures in the bas-relief, immediately above the horsemen, are exquisite specimens of sculpture, and are more like carvings in ivory than anything else, in fact, it is difficult to believe they are really cut in so hard a material as stone. Above this, Vishnu will be recognised in his boar incarnation, holding the Goddess Lakshmi, as already seen at the Mahavellipore [Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu]. On the projecting pavilion, is Shiva with Parvati on his knee, and above them, Shiva standing alone. The same groups are repeated on both sides of all the six projecting pavilions of this front'. |