Description: | Photograph from an album of 40 albumen prints by Edmund David Lyon. Halebid is a site in the Hassan district of Karnataka, once famous as Dwarasamudra, the capital of the Hoysalas, from the 12th to the 14th centuries. The Hoysaleshvara temple in Halebid dates from the mid-12th century and represents the apogee of the Hoysala style of architecture, richly decorated with finely wrought carving in the grey-green chloritic schist of the region. The temple was sacred to Shiva and consists of twin structures that are linked and form a complex with two sanctuaries and two pillared halls or mandapas built on a stepped plan. Lyon wrote in his 'Notes to Accompany a Series of Photographs Prepared to Illustrate the Ancient Architecture of Southern India' (Marion & Co., London, 1870), edited by James Fergusson, that this photograph '...is another portion of the west face of the temple, one of the chief figures here seen, is the God Pulliar or Ganesa, said to be one of the sons of Shiva...Attached to his right, is an unfinished representation of Shiva, and the same god appears on the extreme right of the picture, riding on his bull Vahana'. |